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cvndmcvn 
V Twilight- • 

• • Stories • • 



^Abbie Phillips WaJker*-- 

I (lust rated by Rhoda. Chase •• 
Harper <3 Brothers, Publisher^ 



Books by 

ABBIE PHILLIPS WALKER 

{Illustrated) 

THE SANDMAN’S CHRISTMAS STORIES 
THE SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 
TOLD BY THE SANDMAN'. 

SANDMAN TALES ‘ 

THE SANDMAN’S HOUR’ 


HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK 
[Established 1817 ] 


Q' Cl. A 503437 

SEP 16 |y 18 


The Sandman’s Twilight Stories 

Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers 
Printed in the United States of America 
Published September, 1918 

H-S 


* » t * 


CONTENTS 


How the Race Was Won 

The Moon Lady’s Daughter 

The King’s Servant 

Princess Marzell 

Old Witch Neda 

The Fairy Queen’s Jewels 

The Goblins, the Fairies, and the Moon . . . . 

The Pin Brothers 

Nim-nim’s Golden Wings 

The Golden Chain 

The Lost Fairy 

The Sorceress and the Pearl 

The Fairies’ Dolls 

The Gossiping Spring Flowers 

The Water-lily’s Lover 

The Rented House 

Robin Redbreast’s Cherry Pie 

Boastful Spider and the Clock 

The Sandman’s Sand 

The Vanity of Annie 

Mrs. Speckled Hen’s Lesson 


PAGE 

3 

8 

12 

16 

24 

32 

36 

40 

44 

48 

58 

66 

7i 

74 

78 

82 

87 

93 

97 

102 

106 


CONTENTS 


The Singing-school 

How Mrs. Mouse Fooled Kitty 

The Moonlight Sail 

The White Fur Coats 

How Mr. Fox Got His Dinner 

Jerry Fox 

Tricky Red Fox 


PAGE 

no 

115 

119 

124 

127 

131 

136 


SANDMAN’S 
TWILIGHT STORIES 



























9 
































HOW THE RACE WAS WON 

T HINGS had been rather dull in the forest all the 
winter, and when springtime came Mr. Fox thought 
it would be great fun to have a race in which all the 
animals could take part. 

“It will be nice, brisk-feeling weather,” he told 
Jack Rabbit and his brother Bennie. “The bushes 
will not be too thick and the ground nice and clear 
of vines, so we can have a good path all the way 
through.” 

Bennie and Jack Rabbit said they would join the 
race, and off went Mr. Fox to call on Mr. Bear. 

“You are such a swift runner, Mr. Bear,” he said, 
with his sweetest smile, “that the rest of us will have 
little show beside you, but it will give us all a chance 
to see how swift we really are.” 

Mr, Bear was pleased to have Mr. Fox think he was 


4 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


a fast runner, and said he would be glad to join the 
race and that he would certainly give them all a good 
start, as he was quite well aware that he was a fast 
runner. 

Mr. Fox smiled to himself as he went along to 
Mr. Squirrel’s house, for he really thought that Mr. 
Bear was a very clumsy fellow. “Well, let him think 
so,” he said to himself. “It will be all the easier for 
me to win, with all the others so sure they will finish 
first in the face.” 

Mr. Squirrel said he would be glad to join, but that 
he felt he would be taking unfair advantage of the 
others, he was such a swift-footed animal. 

“Oh, that is all right,” said Mr. Fox. “We know 
you will win before we start, but it will be great fun 
to try to beat you, Mr. Squirrel.” 

“I shall have an easy time of it,” laughed Mr. Fox 
to himself, as he ran along to Billy Possum’s house. 
“I know well enough I can outrun them all.” 

Billy Possum said he would be delighted to join 
the race, that he was a pretty swift runner, but if the 
others were willing to take a chance with him he 
would like nothing better. 

Mr. Coon was glad to join in the race, and smiled 
very broadly when Mr. Fox asked him, because he 
felt it would be so easy to bound past the rest of the 
runners and win the prize. 

“Well, they all seem pretty sure of the prize but 
the poor Rabbit brothers/’ said Mr. Fox, “and they 


HOW THE RACE WAS WON 


5 


really do not stand a bit of chance anyway; they can 
run and hop pretty fast, but not fast enough to win 
the race. Well, it is settled before we start that I 
will get the prize. Now I believe a gold medal would 
look well around my neck.” 

Mr. Fox got all the animals to contribute toward 
the medal, and each one felt sure it would belong to 
him at the end of the race. 

Every morning Jack Rabbit and his brother Bennie 
hopped and ran through the woods before the day 
set for the race, and every one smiled pityingly, for 
they felt that the Rabbit brothers were sure to come 
in the very last. 

Jack Rabbit and Bennie Rabbit were very much 
alike in looks; the only way to tell Bennie from Jack 
was to look at their hind legs. 

Bennie Rabbit had a little white spot on his left 
hind leg, while Jack was all one color. 

Every one but the Rabbit brothers was at the 
big tree at the road by the forest before the sun 
was up on the morning of the race. They were 
to run from there to the big rock on the other side 
of the woods, and there on a bush was hung the 
gold medal. 

“Where is Jack Rabbit and his brother?” asked 
some one. 

“Here comes one of them now,” said Mr. Fox. 
“Ill have to wait until I see his left hind leg to know 
which one it is.” 


6 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“It is Bennie,” said Mr. Possum. . “I can see the 
white spot.” 

“I am sorry to tell you my brother is sick and 
cannot run with us,” said Mr. Rabbit, “and that is 
why I am late. I had to go for the doctor.” 

No one paid much attention to Mr. Rabbit, they 
were all too busy getting a good position to start 
from. 

“Are you all ready?” called out Mr. Fox. 

“All ready,” came the reply. 

“Go!” cried Mr. Fox, at the same time starting 
off with leaps that sent him ahead of the others. 

Oh, how they all ran and leaped and bounded 
through the woods ! Mr. Fox thought he was having 
an easy time, and so did the others. First Mr. Bear 
would get ahead and then Mr. Fox and Mr. Squirrel 
went like a streak of lightning. Mr. Possum and 
Mr. Coon did pretty well, too, but each one was 
so intent on winning he did not pay attention to 
the others. 

But when they were in sight of the rock, there they 
saw Bennie Rabbit sitting with the medal around his 
neck. 

Of course Mr. Fox stopped, and so did the others, 
and just stared. “How in the world did he do it?” 
they asked. 

“I do not remember seeing him pass me,” said Mr. 
Fox. 

“Nor I,” said the others, but there was nothing 


HOW THE RACE WAS WON 


7 

to do. He was there and had the medal, and that was 
proof he had won it. 

They all congratulated Bennie Rabbit, but it was 
plain they were all disappointed. 

A little later in the day Jack Rabbit said to Bennie, 
“I don’t know how I will ever get off this white paint. 
I’ll have to cut off the hair, I guess, and stay in bed 
till it grows again.” 

“It wasn’t worth the trouble, anyway,” said 
Bennie. “I cannot eat this gold medal, and Mr. 
Coon said he would give me a nice head of lettuce for 
it, so I think I’ll trade it off. 

“I kept so still behind that rock waiting for them 
to come in sight that I had a cramp in my leg.” 

“You had an easier time than I did,” said Jack. 
“When I left the others and ran home Mr. Dog 
chased me and I almost lost my life.” 

“Well, we fooled them, anyway,” said Bennie, 
“and I guess we will not hear any more about fast 
running for a while.” 



THE MOON LADY’S DAUGHTER 

O NCE upon a time there lived a King and Queen 
who had no children, and so the Queen prayed 
that a fairy might come to her and bring her a baby 
girl, for the castle was lonely without the voices of 
children in its great halls. 

One night the Queen was awakened by a bright 
light shining in her room, and on a moonbeam stood 
a fairy. 

“Good Queen,” said the fairy, “our Queen has sent 
me to tell you that your prayer will be answered, but 
only on one condition.” 

“Tell me what it is,” said the Queen, sitting up in 
her bed. “I will grant anything to your Queen if only 
she will send me a baby girl,” 


THE MOON LADY’S DAUGHTER 


9 


“There is only one baby girl the Queen can send 
you,” said the fairy, “and that is a moon baby, which 
can only stay on the earth till the Moon Mother calls 
her back. Sometimes the Moon Lady will let her 
children stay many years and sometimes only for a 
short time. Are you willing to have the moon baby 
sent to you even if she stays only a little while?” 

“Oh yes,” said the Queen. “I will be grateful for 
only a few years of happiness. Tell your Queen I 
accept the condition; only send me a baby girl.” 

The next morning when the Queen awoke there in 
the bed beside her lay a dainty baby girl. 

In her great joy the Queen forgot to tell the King 
of the fairy visitor, and so he knew nothing of the 
Moon Mother or that his little daughter was a moon- 
beam child. 

The Princess grew up to be a beautiful girl, and 
every one who beheld her loved her. 

Suitors came from far and near to ask for her hand; 
there were princes and kings; but none of them would 
the Princess marry. 

At the end of the castle grounds stood the gardener’s 
cabin, and there lived the gardener’s son, too, and to 
him had the Princess given her love, all unknown to 
the King or Queen. 

The gardener’s son was a handsome lad, and had 
loved the Princess when she was a little girl, and they 
had played together in the castle gardens. 

When the King and Queen learned of their daugh- 


10 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


ter’s love for the boy of lowly birth they would not 
listen to her, but told her she was to marry a husband 
worthy of a Princess; and as for the gardener’s son, 
they ordered that he be made a prisoner in a tower of 
the castle until the Princess had married and gone 
away to a castle of her own to live. 

Of course, the Queen long before had forgotten all 
about the fairy or the Moon Mother, and even when 
she did remember she was sure she had dreamed it 
all; so no thought of the Princess being taken from her 
entered her mind. 

One night after the gardener’s son was locked in the 
tower the Princess was sitting by her window, weeping 
and looking toward the tower which held her lover. 

The moon was shining very brightly, and the 
Princess looked at the Moon Lady and stretched out 
her arms. “Moon Lady,” she cried, “you can see my 
lover and touch him. Oh, help me to see him again !” 

The Moon Lady smiled at the Princess, and from 
her big shining seat she sent a moonbeam path 
straight to the Princess’s window and a fairy appeared 
before her. 

“Your mother has sent me for you,” said the fairy. 
“It is time for you to return to her. Come !” 

The Princess followed the fairy straight up to the 
Moon Lady’s throne. 

“I am your mother, child,” said the Moon Lady, 
“and you are unhappy. Tell me what is making you 
so sad.” 


THE MOON LADY’S DAUGHTER 


ii 


“My lover has been taken from me!” cried the 
Princess, “and I cannot live without him! If you are 
really my mother give me my lover and make me 
happy once more.” 

“Moonbeam children cannot live as mortals do,” 
said the Moon Lady; “but, my child, I will do all I 
can to make you happy. You shall go to your lover, 
and if he is willing to change his form for love of you 
you shall have your lover every time I take my place 
in the sky.” 

The Princess agreed, and on a moonbeam path she 
visited her lover in the tower, who gladly consented 
to become anything so long as he could have her with 
him part of the time. 

The Moon Lady changed the lover into a lake in the 
mountains, and on the nights when the moon is 
shining the little Moonbeam Princess hurries to her 
lover, where she stays until the morning light calls 
her back to her mother. 

The lake is called the Silver Lake of the mountain 
because it looks like a sheet of silver in the moonlight, 
but it is really the love of the Moonbeam Princess and 
her lover which sheds its glory over the lake, making 
it shine like silver in the moon’s soft light. 



THE KING’S SERVANT 
NCE upon a time there lived a King who had a 



servant named Muccio, of whom he was very 
fond — so fond, in fact, that all the other servants dis- 
liked Muccio very much and wished to be rid of him. 

At last, one day, when the King dressed Muccio 
in a coat of red velvet and gave him a sword to wear 
at his side, the servants could stand it no longer, 
their envy was so great. 

So one of the servants went to an old witch in the 
woods and asked her to change Muccio into a cat. 

This the old witch promised to do for a bag of gold 
which all the servants had to make up out of their 
small savings, and one day, while the King and Muccio 
were sitting in the garden of the palace, Muccio sud- 
denly disappeared and a big black cat took his place. 

The King hunted and the servants pretended to 


THE KING’S SERVANT 


13 


hunt for Muccio also, but nowhere could he be found, 
of course, for he had been changed into a black cat. 

When the King saw the big black cat around the 
palace grounds he called it to him, and when it rubbed 
its head against him and followed him about (for, of 
course, the black cat was fond of the King just the 
same as Muccio had been) the King ordered that it 
should have a red velvet cushion to sleep upon and a 
gold collar for its neck and should be fed on the 
richest cream. 

The servants saw they had not done much harm to 
Muccio, after all, and again they went to the old witch 
and asked her to change the cat into a lion. For 
another bag of gold the witch promised to do as they 
wished, and so out of their small store of savings the 
servants made up another bag of gold and gave it to 
the witch. 

Then one day when the King went to the place 
where the black cat usually slept on its velvet cushion 
he was nearly frightened out of his wits to find a lion. 

But instead of being fierce, as he looked, the lion 
crawled along to the King for him to scratch his head, 
just as he had done when he was a black cat. 

Then he licked the hand of the King; who was so 
pleased that the king of beasts should be so tame and 
fond of him that he ordered a gold cage to be made 
and a bed of purple velvet to be put in it and a gold 
dish for the lion to eat from. 

Again the servants saw they had failed to get rid of 
2 


14 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


Muccio, so they went to the old witeh and told her 
she must change the lion into something so dreadful 
that the king would not want it near him. 

This time the old witch asked for more gold, and 
it took all the savings the servants had to pay her, 
and this time Muccio was changed into a dreadful 
dragon . 

When the King went to the cage and saw the dragon 
in place of the lion he knew some wicked spell was at 
work around him and he sent for the old witch in the 
woods. Of course, the King could give her more gold 
than his servants, and he asked her to find out what 
spell had been cast over the black cat to change it 
into so many different shapes, for he did not know 
that Muccio had been changed into the black cat; he 
still thought he was lost in the woods about the palace 
and probably had died for want of food. 

The old witch, knowing she could not get any more 
from the servants, told the King that for a barrel of 
gold she would tell him what had happened. First 
she caused the dragon to change to the lion and then 
the lion into the cat; then she waved her hands and 
muttered a few words, and to the surprise of the King 
there stood his servant Muccio before him. 

After the old witch had hobbled away Muccio told 
his King that he was sure the servants had caused all 
his troubles; and the King called the servants, who 
now were very frightened, and they confessed all to 
him. 


THE KING’S SERVANT 


iS 

Muccio pleaded for them not to be punished, and 
the King spared their lives, but only on condition 
that they should have no more money to spend, but 
that they should work for their food and clothes the 
rest of their lives. 

“For you are not to be trusted with money,” he 
told them. “You need a master as well as a king, and 
now you shall have one.” 

So the wicked servants had to wait on Muccio the 
rest of their lives, for the King grew fonder of him 
than ever and never let him leave his side. 



PRINCESS MARZELL 
Part I 

NCE there lived in a far-off foreign land a King 



and Queen who had a daughter, the Princess 
Marzell. 

Of course, she was very much spoiled, as she was 
their only child, and when Princess Marzell was old 
enough to marry she decided she would not marry 
any of the princes her father and mother had selected 
for her to choose from. 

So the King and Queen decided they would let her 
choose any one she liked if only she would marry, 
for they wanted her to have a king to help her rule 
when they should be gone. 

In a cave in the forest a long way from the castle 
lived a witch, aid her magic power was very wonder- 


PRINCESS MARZELL 


17 


ful. But only for those who would give her gold 
would the old witch work her magic arts. 

One of the King’s servants had long wanted to be a 
king himself, but he knew no way of becoming a king 
until he heard the King and Queen talking about the 
Princess Marzell and how they intended to let her 
select her husband. Then the servant, whose name 
was Michio, went to the old witch in the forest and 
asked for help. “I will give you more gold than you 
have ever seen when I become king,” he told the old 
witch. 

But she would do nothing for him until she saw the 
gold, so one night he robbed one of the chests of the 
King’s vault and went to the old witch again. 

How her greedy old eyes glistened when she saw 
all the yellow gold Michio poured at her feet. “Ask 
what you like, my pretty,” cackled the old witch, 
“and it shall be as you ask.” 

“Make me so handsome the Princess Marzell will 
not be able to live without me. Make her to fall 
in love with me for her husband,” said the crafty 
fellow. 

“Be it so,” said the old witch, waving over his head 
her crooked cane as she mumbled words that had no 
meaning for Michio, but which changed him from a 
very common-looking fellow into a handsome youth. 

“She will never be able to resist you now, my 
pretty,” croned the old witch as she counted over 
the gold Michio had brought. 


18 SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

Michio did not stop to thank her, but ran at full 
speed to his home to look at himself in a mirror. 

He was indeed a handsome man, and all he needed 
were clothes to set off his beauty. So that night when 
the castle was dark and silent again Michio went to 
the vaults of the King and helped himself to the gold, 
for the King had trusted him with the keys, which 
made it very easy. 

The next day Michio disappeared and no one could 
find him, and then the King discovered he had been 
robbed, and, of course, he knew it must have been 
Michio who did the dishonest deed. 

That day when the King and his servants were out 
riding and looking everywhere for Michio there rode 
up to the castle a very handsome youth who asked 
that he be allowed to rest for a while in the castle 
park. 

Of course it was Michio, and he knew at that very 
hour the Princess Marzell would walk in the park 
with her servants. 

It was not long before she came, and, seeing so 
handsome a youth in her father’s park, she asked who 
he was. 

“I asked leave of the porter to rest,” said Michio, 
bowing low before the Princess. “I am on my way 
to my castle, and it is a long way from here.” 

“And are you a prince?” asked the Princess, her 
heart beating fast, for if he were she felt she had at 
last foi^nd the only man she \yould wish to marry f 


PRINCESS MARZELL 


19 


and at the same time she would please her father and 
mother by marrying a prince. 

“That I am,” said Michio, “but a poor prince. 
I have a castle, but little money.” 

Princess Marzell hurried to her mother and told 
her of the strange prince, begging her to ask him to 
remain overnight, as he had a long journey and was 
tired. 

So the Queen, who could refuse her daughter noth- 
ing, invited Michio to remain at the castle overnight, 
and when the King returned the Princess told him 
she had found the only man she would marry. 

The King was so pleased that he did not delay the 
wedding, but the very next night he gave a great 
feast and Michio and Princess Marzell were married, 
and the next day they rode away in a beautiful gold 
and black coach, drawn by four black horses which the 
King gave them for a wedding present. 

Besides this, you may be sure they had bags and 
bags of gold, for the Princess told her father the Prince 
was poor, but for that she did not care, as the King 
had so much wealth he could easily provide for them 
both. 

Part II 

On and on they rode, for, of course, Michio did 
not have any castle, nor was he sure of what he 
should do when night overtook them. Michio 
Stopped at a country inn and told the coachman t9 


20 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


drive back to the King and tell him they were sailing 
to the island where his castle was the next morning, 
and should not need the coach or the horses. 

This he did to be rid of the servant, and the next 
morning, when the Princess came down to her break- 
fast, her husband told her they would go for a walk 
before they started on their journey. 

Princess Marzell was so much in love with her 
handsome husband she did not question anything 
he did or said, so she went with him as he requested. 

Michio did not know where he should take her, but 
he wanted to put her where her father could not find 
her, and pretend she was dead, and then return to the 
castle, where he intended to soon get rid of the King 
and Queen. 

After a long walk Michio saw in the woods away 
from the road a house, and to this he led the Prin- 
cess. No sooner were they inside than he locked 
the door and told her she was to remain there until 
he returned. 

Poor frightened Princess Marzell! She waited and 
waited, but her husband did not return, and when it 
was dark she was too frightened to leave the house, 
so she lay on the floor all night, weeping with fright 
and hunger. 

When the morning came she climbed out of the 
window and ate the berries she found growing near 
by, but she did not dare go away from where her 
husband had left her, for fear he might return, for she 


PRINCESS MARZELL 


21 


did not suspect even then that he had deserted her, 
and was sure he would come back. 

The next day and the next she waited, and still 
he did not return, and when she did try to go out 
of the woods she found she could not remember the 
way. 

For weeks she roamed the woods, eating what she 
could find, until she was so thin no one would have 
known the pretty Princess if he had seen her. 

But one day she heard the horn of hunters and 
followed the sound until she came upon the party, 
which she recognized as her father’s servants. 

Quickly she called to them, but they did not know 
her, and when she told them her story they could not 
believe it. 

One of the servants said: “We will take her back 
to the castle with us ; the Queen will be sure to know 
her, but I do not understand how it can be the Princess 
when the Prince says she is dead and is so unhappy 
over her death.” 

When the servants brought Princess Marzell to the 
Queen and King, Michio happened to be near the 
door, and when he saw what had happened he fled 
from the castle. 

The Queen, of course, knew her child, and when 
they had heard her story the King sent for Michio, 
but, of course, he could not be found. 

Michio knew all was lost now unless the old witch 
helped him again, so to her he went with all his 


22 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


pockets filled with gold, for this he always carried 
with him because he was so fond of wealth. 

'‘Help me to get her again and this time to get rid 
of her for good,” he said to the old witch, ‘‘for if she 
disappears I am sure the King and Queen will believe 
she is dead and was not their daughter, after all.” 

“Take this bag, my pretty,” said the old witch; 
“it is a magic bag, and once any one is inside it the 
bag will go where the owner tells it to go. 

“Take this magic wafer also, for on this depends 
the working of the bag for the one who owns it. Hold 
it in your mouth when you give the command to the 
bag, and be careful not to swallow it. And here is a 
powder that will put those who are in your way to 
sleep when you go for the Princess. 

“If you wish to be rid of the Princess I should 
advise you to get her in the bag and tell it to jump 
into the ocean.” 

Michio folded the bag and put it under his arm and 
put the wafer in his pocket. 

That night when all were asleep Michio crawled in a 
window of the castle and scattered his powder as he 
went past all the rooms where the people were sleeping, 
so they would not awake. 

Into the Princess’s room he went and scattered the 
powder over the servants, who were sleeping on the 
floor by her bed, but he did not bother to scatter it 
over the Princess, feeling sure that, once she was inside 
the bag, she would be out of his way soon enough. 


PRINCESS MARZELL 


23 

The wafer he placed in his mouth, and then with 
the bag open he leaned over the sleeping Princess to 
put it over her head. ‘‘Jump into the river with her 
and sink,” he said to the bag. 

As he bent over her a stray lock of the Princess’s 
curling hair tickled Michio’s nose, and before he 
could prevent it he had sneezed, and out of his mouth 
flew the magic wafer, and over his head jumped the 
bag and out of the window it flew to the river and 
down it sank, just as he had commanded. 

Of course that was the very last of Michio, and 
when the Princess and all the household awoke the 
next morning they knew nothing about what had 
happened in the night, for the wafer had disappeared 
also, and no trace of Michio’s visit was seen. 

The old witch knew nothing about what had 
happened, for she never heard of the happenings of 
the outside world and cared for nothing but the gold 
she received for her magic arts. 

The Princess Marzell lived to a good old age with- 
out marrying again, and ruled after her father and 
mother had gone just as well as if she had had a King 
to help her. 



OLD WITCH NEDA 


Part I 

O NCE upon a time, thousands and thousands of 
years ago, I expect, for no one ever hears of 
Witch Neda in these days, an old witch named Neda 
used to jump on her broomstick with another broom 
in her hand; she used to fly about the sky brushing 
away the cobwebs, as she called them. 

What she really did was to brush away the little 
rain clouds that the stars used for veils when they 
were tired of shining. 

“You let our veils stay over our faces,” said the 
little stars, quite angry with old Witch Neda; “we 
want them. You wicked old witch, go away, go 
away!” 

But Witch Neda would only laugh a cackling laugh 
and go on with her broom, sweeping away the cobwebs. 


OLD WITCH NEDA 


25 


“Silly little stars,” said old Witch Neda, “they 
would have the sky in a most untidy state if it were 
not for me. I have to sweep every night. If I didn’t 
the sky would be filled with cobwebs. ‘Veils,’ indeed! 
Those silly little things do not know the difference 
between a veil and a cobweb.” 

One night the stars were all wearing their veils 
when along came old Witch Neda with her broom 
and whisked them off, and the little stars were so 
angry they forgot their nice manners and many of 
them rushed at old Witch Neda, darting little sharp 
points right into her face and making her wink and 
blink so that she could not see where she was going, 
and she bumped right into the moon, who was just 
coming out from behind a cloud to see what was 
going on. * * Look out where you are going, old witch, ’ ’ 
he called. 

Old Neda dropped her hr 00m and made a grab 
for the moon, and she caught him, too, right by 
the nose. 

“Here, here, here! Let go my nose!” he cried, but 
old Witch Neda did not let go. She hung on and 
carried him off to her house, on the top of a high 
mountain. 

“I’ll give those silly stars something to cry about 
now,” said old Neda, as she opened a dark closet 
and threw in the moon. 

“They won’t have any moonlight for a while, and 
if I can get the sun I can have things all my own way 


26 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


in the sky, and make those stars sorry they were so 
rude to me to-night.” 

The next day when the sun was shining, and not 
thinking a thing about any harm coming to him, old 
Neda put on her smoked glasses and her high-topped 
cap and a long, black cape. 

Then she jumped on her broomstick and flew 
straight for the sun. Of course, the stars were asleep, 
and could not warn the sun, and he thought it was a 
black cloud he saw sailing toward him. 

“Ah! now I can take a little nap,” he said. “Here 
comes a black cloud which I can hide behind for a 
while. I do get so sleepy shining all day,” and 
then the sun gave a yawn just to get ready for 
his nap. 

But something happened, he didn’t just know what, 
but before he could stop the yawn he felt a jerk, and 
then he was covered with something black and whizzed 
along at a terrible rate of speed he did not know 
where. 

“There, I guess I can run things to suit myself 
now,” said old Witch Neda as she took from under her 
cape the sun, winking and blinking and wondering 
whatever had happened to him. 

Into the dark closet with the moon she threw the 
sun, and closed the door. 

Of course, the stars awoke as soon as it was dark, 
and it became dark right away when old Neda stole 
the sun, so the little stars shone and winked all night 


OLD WITCH NEDA 


27 


and all day because the sun did not get up, and they 
did not know when the night was over. 

The next night they twinkled, and the next day, 
but then they began to get so sleepy they could not 
keep their bright eyes open, and one by one they 
began to nod. 

“I wonder what can be the matter with us?” said 
one star, trying to keep awake. “This is the longest 
night I ever saw.” 

“And I wonder where the moon is?” said another. 
“If we could see him we might find out why the sun 
is so lazy this morning.” 

Old Witch Neda was flying about, hidden beneath 
her black cape, and she laughed to herself as she heard 
what the stars said. 

“I can tell you where the sun is and the moon, 
too,” she said, throwing off her cape and showing 
herself to the stars. “ I have them both locked up in 
a closet in my house,” and off she flew on her broom- 
stick, leaving the poor little stars quite speechless 
with amazement. 


Part II 

“Something must be done and done at once,” said 
one star. “If we let that old witch have the sun 
and moon, no knowing what will become of us.” 

“But what can we do ? ” asked another star. ‘ ‘ Here 
we are up here in the sky and old Neda’s house is on 


28 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


the top of a mountain. Besides that, she will keep a 
close watch over them you may be sure. What can 
we do and what will become of us?” 

“One of us must go down there and let them out,” 
said the first star. “Now which one of us will go? 
That is the first thing to settle.” 

No one answered for a minute, and then a very 
little star said, timidly, “I am willing to go, but I am 
so small I do not suppose I could do any good.” 

“You are the very one to go, just because you are 
small,” said the first star. “And now I will tell you 
how it can be done. 

“Old Witch Neda will be up here to-night, you 
may be sure, because she is happy, now that she 
has the sun and moon and wants to see how un- 
happy we are. 

“When she comes to-night we must make a great 
fuss and cry because we are so upset, not knowing 
when it is night or day, and beg her to help us ; she will 
fly around close to us, and when she is very near Little 
Star we must wail and cry and attract her attention, 
and then Little Star must jump on the broomstick 
right behind old Witch Neda — ” 

“Oh! oh! oh!” said all the stars; “oh! oh! oh!” for 
they were afraid of old Neda. But Little Star did not 
cry out; she just winked and blinked and listened to 
what the first star said. 

“As I said,” continued the first star, “Little Star 
must jump on the broomstick right behind old Witch 


OLD WITCH NEDA 


29 


Neda and then close her eyes until old Neda comes 
to her house on the top of the mountain. 

“Of course, she can only take just one look then, 
just to see where the old witch goes, and the Little 
Star must stay very still until old Neda goes to bed, 
for she usually sleeps in the daytime. 

“When all is still and you are sure old Witch Neda 
sleeps, then you must go about very carefully and 
quietly until you find the closet where the sun and 
moon are kept prisoners and unlock the door.” 

“But what good will that do?” asked one star. 
“They will be out of the closet, but how will they 
ever get back to their places in the sky? The old 
witch will never bring them, of course.” 

“Wait, my dear sister, and I will tell you even how 
that can be managed,” said the first star. 

“After you have released the sun and moon, Little 
Star, you must hurry to the place where the old witch 
keeps her magic broomstick and jump on it. Smooth 
it three times one way and then three times in the 
opposite direction, and it will obey you. 

“You must be careful, however, to smooth it but 
one way until you have the sun and moon safely on 
it with you. But hush, hush! here comes old Witch 
Neda.” 

Old Witch Neda cackled and chuckled when she 
heard the wailing and crying the stars were making 
over the loss of the sun and moon. 

3 “Oh, give them back to us, give them back to us!” 


30 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


they cried. “We will never be rude to you again, 
even when you pull off our veils.” 

“Ah-ha!” said the old witch, laughing loudly. “I 
guess you won’t be rude to me, my silly little stars, 
for I intend to keep the old moon and sun locked in 
my closet and make you shine all the time until you 
are so sleepy you fall out of the sky. Ha, ha, ha!” 

“Oh! oh! oh!” cried the stars, all together, and old 
Neda flew close to them to better see how they 
suffered, and then Little Star did as the first star had 
told her to do, and the next instant she was flying 
along with old Witch Neda toward her house on the 
top of the mountain. 

Little Star looked just once and saw old Neda go 
into the house. Then she closed her eyes and waited 
until she was sure the witch was asleep. 

Very, very carefully she opened the door and slipped 
in. Then she looked around and from under a door 
she saw a very bright light and knew that behind that 
door were the sun and moon. 

The key was in the door and it took only a 
second to turn it. “Hush!” said Little Star. “I 
have come to release you. Do not make a sound, 
but follow me.” 

Little Star took from a chair old Witch Neda’s big 
black cape and threw it over the sun and moon, so 
their bright light might not awaken the old witch, 
and in another minute they were all sitting on the 
broomstick, while Little Star smoothed it three times 


OLD WITCH NEDA 


3i 


one way and three times the other, and then said: 
“Off to the sky. Take us home, good broomstick." 

Away they flew, and in a short time the sun was 
shining in the sky just as if nothing had happened to 
him, and the stars went to sleep and slept soundly, 
they were so tired. 

Little Star that night took her place in the sky very 
quietly, but the other stars wanted to know all about 
her adventure. 

“Oh, I just did as the first star told me," modestly 
replied the Little Star, “and brought back the sun 
and moon, that was all." 

“You were a brave Little Star," said the first star, 
“and as a reward the broomstick of the old witch has 
been made into stars, which is to be made into a big 
cross, and in this cross forever shall you shine, and 
you will take on more brightness than any of us, 
brave, brave Little Star." 

Of course, the old witch, having lost her broomstick, 
could not bother the stars any more, so they shone 
and twinkled happily on, always feeling grateful to 
Little Star for helping them out of their great trouble. 



THE FAIRY QUEEN’S JEWELS 
NE night the elves were holding a meeting and 



talking over the doings of the fairies, who had 
been having a party in the dell. 

“Oh, such jewels as the Queen wears!” said one elf. 
“ I wish I knew where she keeps them; we would steal 
them and wear them ourselves. I do not see why we 
should not wear jewels as well as the fairies.” 

“I am sure we could easily do that,” said another 
wicked little elf, “because the Queen does not wear 
her jewels in the daytime. I saw her a little while 
ago and she did not have on one jewel.” 

“We may as well take the jewels of the fairies, too; 
then there will be enough for all of us, and we want 
them for the party the goblins are giving to-morrow 
night. I guess their eyes will pop more than ever 
when they see us with jewels on our coats.” 



33 


THE FAIRY QUEEN’S JEWELS 

“We better start hunting for them,” said another 
elf ; “ we may not have such an easy time finding them 
as we think.” 

Away scampered all the little elves, scudding under 
the leaves and blades of grass until they came to the 
dell where the fairies live, and then they hid and 
watched. 

The fairies and their Queen were resting and the 
elves could plainly see that they did not wear their 
jewels, so when the fairies flew away after the Queen’s 
carriage a little later the wicked little elves hustled 
hither and thither, hunting under the leaves and 
inside the flowers and everywhere they could think 
the jewels might be hidden, and still they did not find 
one jewel. 

They had to go away without the jewels, for the 
fairies came back just at dark and that ended the 
hunt. 

“We will not go far,” said one elf, “and as soon 
as it is dark we will see where they keep them, for they 
wear them every night.” 

But the fairies could travel much faster than the 
elves, and when later they flew out of the dell the elves 
were left far behind. 

But they caught up to them in a daisy-field, and, 
while they could not get close enough to see just what 
was going on, they saw the fairies flutter about the 
flowers and then fly away. 

“Run after them, run after them!” said an elf. 


34 SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

“We must not lose sight of them until we find the 
jewels.” 

Back they went, following the fairies as fast as they 
could to the dell, and, to their surprise, when they 
arrived every fairy had on her jewels and the Queen 
all her gorgeous collection. 

“We will stay and see where they put them. We 
missed seeing them take them out,” said one of the 
elves. “Now, every fellow keep his eyes open and 
don’t let them fool us again.” 

Oh, how sleepy those little elves did get watching 
the fairies! They rubbed their eyes and yawned in 
their efforts to keep awake. 

“Won’t they ever get through dancing and take 
off their jewels?” whispered one elf. 

“They never go to bed until sunrise,” said another. 

“Oh, there they go! Quick! follow them now!” 
said another. 

Away flew the fairies toward the fields and this 
time the elves were quicker in following. They did 
not reach the fields as soon as the fairies, but they 
reached there in time to see the Queen taking the 
pearls and diamonds and all her beautiful jewels off 
and handing them to her fairies. 

And then the elves opened their eyes, for what did 
those fairies do but drop the Queen’s jewels all over 
the fields, and, taking off their own, they did the same 
thing with them, and then flew away. 

The sun was just poking up his head when the 


35 


THE FAIRY QUEEN’S JEWELS 

fairies left, and as soon as they were out of sight into 
the fields ran the elves to gather up the jewels the 
fairies had so carelessly, as the elves thought, scattered 
over the fields. 

But not a jewel did they find, hunt as they would; 
the fields were covered with daisies and buttercups 
and little blue, flowers and all kinds of beautiful 
blossoms, but not a jewel did the elves find. 

Old Sol laughed to himself as he watched them 
hunt, and by and by he shot down a hot ray that sent 
the elves scampering home weary and disappointed 
with their night’s work. 

‘ ‘ Ha, ha !” laughed Old Sol. ‘ ‘ Those elves are wise, 
but not wise enough to know that the fairies’ jewels 
are the daisies and buttercups and all the other 
beautiful field flowers in the daytime, and only when 
the fairies gather them do they become the jewels 
they see them wearing at night.” 



THE GOBLINS, THE FAIRIES, AND THE 
MOON 

T HE fairies had been bothered for a long time by 
the mischievous little goblins, who jumped up 
from behind the rocks and frightened them when 
they were at play. 

Sometimes the goblins would stand on their heads 
and kick their little pointed feet about while they 
made a funny little cry, and when the little fairies saw 
them they thought some terrible animal had come to 
carry them off. 

Another time they would hide under the leaves and 
in the bushes, and when the fairies were playing they 
would poke out their funny little faces, twisting them 
about in a way that frightened the fairies so they 
would run away. 

At last the Queen appealed to Mr. Moon Man and 


GOBLINS, FAIRIES, AND THE MOON 37 

asked him to help them to get rid of the troublesome 
little fellows. “If you can frighten those bad little 
men,” said the Queen, “ I wish you would, but I expect 
they are too bold to be frightened by anything.” 

“I’ll think it over,” said Mr. Moon Man, with a 
wise smile. “Iam sure something can be done to get 
them out of your way.” 

One night not long after this the Queen heard Mr. 
Moon Man calling her. “I will frighten the goblins 
to-night,” he said, “and I can promise you they will 
not bother you again, on moonlight nights, anyway.” 

“Oh, good Mr. Moon Man, that is all we will ask, 
for it is only on moonlight nights we ever play,” 
replied the Queen. 

“Come with your fairies to-night at the end of the 
dell where there are few bushes or rocks, and when 
I am shining over the trees you let your fairies begin 
their sports,” Mr. Moon Man told the Queen. 

When the fairies heard what the Moon Man had 
promised they could hardly wait for the time to come, 
and long before the moon could be seen the fairies 
were waiting in the dell. 

By and by Mr. Moon Man’s bright smile could be 
seen behind the trees, and all the little fairies ran out 
into the open space and began to play. They danced 
and they sang and they flittered hither and thither, 
but not a goblin came in sight. They had almost 
despaired of having the fun of seeing their tormentors 
punished when at the far end of the dell they saw the 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


38 

little pointed caps of the goblins pop up from behind 
the rocks. 

“Here they come,” said the Queen. “Now stand 
together and watch, and do not try to run or say a 
word to them. Mr. Moon Man promised to help us, 
and I know that he will keep his word.” 

Running like a streak of lightning, the goblins came 
nearer. They had joined hands and were trying to 
make the fairies run away, fearing they would be 
tumbled over by the running goblins. 

Just before they reached the fairies Mr. Moon Man 
raised his head over the treetops behind the goblins 
and suddenly there appeared right in front of them a 
row of dancing creatures much larger than them- 
selves. 

The goblins stopped running and so did the big 
dark men in front of them. “They are after us,” 
said one goblin. “Run brothers; run for your life!” 

Each little goblin let go of the hand he held, and, 
turning, they took to their heels and fled, never look- 
ing behind them or stopping until they reached their 
rock home, where they tumbled over one another to 
get safely inside before the big dark men caught them. 

The fairies never were bothered again when they 
played in the dell on a moonlight night, but they 
often wondered how Mr. Moon Man frightened away 
the goblins. One night he told them. “It was easy, 
my dears,” he said; “all I did was to lift my head 
behind them and make their shadows appear in front 


GOBLINS, FAIRIES, AND THE MOON 39 


of them; then when I saw they were frightened enough 
to run, I hid behind a cloud so they would not see me. 
They never before had seen their shadows just that 
way and I shall be careful they do not again, so you 
are safe, my children, from the goblins. Run along 
and play.” 

“Oh, thank you, dean Mr. Moon Man,” said the 
little fairies. “We will never forget your kindness, 
and any time you want our help we will be ready to 
give it.” And off they ran to play in the dell until 
the Sun Man showed his face, which warned them it 
was time they went to bed. 



THE PIN BROTHERS 
NE night there was a great commotion in the 



work-basket on the table ; the threads left their 
spools to see what was going on and became so en- 
tangled in the quarrel themselves that all the colors 
were in a perfect snarl the next morning. 

It began by the pin boys saying that their sharp 
little sisters, the needles, were the very brightest and 
most useful things in the basket and that they were 
the next in the order of usefulness. 

“That is not true,” said the scissors. “I am the 
sharpest thing in this basket, and as for being bright, 
why, it would take a hundred of your sister needles 
to be as bright as one of our family. I am the most 
useful thing in this basket.” 

The scissors snapped with a click of anger as he 
finished speaking and hopped out of the basket and 


THE PIN BROTHERS 


4i 


stood on its points on the floor with a look of defiance 
which quickly brought the needles up from the 
cushion on their points to defend themselves. 

“How dare you make such a claim?" they asked. 
“We certainly are the sharpest and brightest articles 
in the work-basket, and if you come back we will make 
you feel the sting of our sharp points." 

“Oh-ho, you silly little needles!" laughed the 
scissors. “Your tiny little points would quickly be 
dulled when they struck against my bright, sharp 
steel. . If it were not for me what would you be worth, 
I should like to know ? Don’t I cut the cloth and get 
it ready for you to sew?" 

“Well, if you put it that way, Mr. Scissors," 
snapped the white thread, crawling to the edge of 
the basket and hanging over the side, “we are the 
most important thing in this basket, for of what 
use would your work be or that of the needles if 
there was no thread? And of all the colors I am 
the most important." 

“That is not true," snapped the black thread, 
crawling up beside the white. “ I am far more useful 
and can be seen plainer than you, Sister White 
Thread." 

“If you talk of being seen," said the red silk, “I 
claim that honor and will give place to no one." 
And up she ran to the sides of the basket to prove it. 

In a minute more all the colored threads and silks 
had crawled up the side of the basket, and for a little 


4 2 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


while the quarrel became so mixed up that the needles 
and pins stopped to listen. 

The threads and silks became so entangled in their 
anger to prove their importance that they could not 
get apart, and hung on the basket in a regular snarl. 

“Now, see where you are!” said the pin brothers. 
“Our sharp little sisters have been pulling you in and 
out all their lives, but now you have got mixed so no 
one can pull you out.” 

No answer came from the tangled threads and silks, 
and the little emery ball spoke up in a very fine, clear 
voice: “I feel in justice to myself I should not let 
any ope in this basket claim the importance that 
rightfully belongs to me. Who would keep the needle 
sisters sharp and bright if it were not for me? I 
think you will all agree that I am the one who makes 
them keen and gives them polish, and I must say that 
they do me credit, for sharper needles than the ones 
in this basket I have never seen.” 

Having spoken, the little emery ball rolled over and 
went to sleep under a ball of cotton. 

“Have it your own way, if you feel better,” said 
the scissors. “I am out of it, but I’ll stand on my 
points in spite of you, that without me to cut out the 
work the rest of you would become useless, and I am 
sharper and brighter than a hundred needles and 
pins.” 

The pin brothers dared him to come back, and their 
little sharp sisters pricked the cushions to show what 


THE PIN BROTHERS 


43 


they would do if they only could get at him, but Mr. 
Scissors only laughed and stood firm. 

“I will hold my points until I am forced to lie 
down,” he said. 

The next morning when the mistress took her work- 
basket from the table she exclaimed: “Oh, that 
mischievous kitten ! She has mixed everything up in 
this basket. I can never untangle this thread. I’ll 
have to cut it.” Then she saw the scissors still stand- 
ing on his points. “Oh, dear!” she said, “ that is a 
sure sign we are to have visitors.” 

She picked up the scissors and snipped off the 
tangled threads and silk, and then laid the scissors in 
the basket, while the pin brothers and their little 
sharp sisters wished it were night-time, so they could 
scratch him. 



NIM-NIM’S GOLDEN WINGS 

O NCE there was a little fairy named Nim-nim, who 
caused the Queen more trouble and worry than 
all the other fairies together. 

Nim-nim had never won her golden wings and she 
had been a fairy for a long time. 

To win their gold wings all the little fairies have to 
do something their Queen deems worthy of the wear- 
ing of golden wings, and until then the little fairies 
can carry a wand and do magic things, but no wings 
can they have until they earn them. 

Night after night the Queen waited for Nim-nim 
to win her wings, and each night she gave the Queen 
the same reply. “I cannot find anything to do, my 
Queen. Although I look everywhere, there seems to 
be nothing left for me. I am afraid I will never wear 
gold wings like my sisters’.” 


NIM-NIM’S GOLDEN WINGS 


45 


“But surely there must be good deeds to be done 
in the world," said the Queen. “Iam sure you could 
find plenty to do if you tried, Nim-nim." 

“ Oh, but, my Queen, I assure you I look everywhere 
and no place can I find anything worth doing," said 
Nim-nim. 

“I will go with you to-morrow night," said the 
Queen. “ I think I know where the trouble lies with 
you, Nim-nim." 

The next night, when the fairies went out on their 
mission of good deeds, the Queen went with Nim-nim, 
following close behind. Away, over the woods and 
meadows, they went and at last Nim-nim turned to 
her Queen and said : “You see, my Queen, I was right; 
there is nothing left for me to do that is worth while. 
I shall never win my wings." 

“Come with me," said the Queen, leading the way, 
and this time they turned from the green meadows and 
trees and hills and went into the city into the little 
streets where sorrow and suffering were in plenty. 

Then the Queen told Nim-nim to look about, but 
still Nim-nim kept on; she did not stop to do any 
kind deeds. 

“There is nothing here for me to do," said Nim-nim 
at last. “ My golden wings cannot be won, there is no 
work for me to do." 

“ Here in this poor house lives a little crippled boy," 
said the Queen; “could you not find deeds of kindness 

to do here? 

4 


46 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“Take away his crutches and touch with your 
wand his crooked legs and straighten them. 

“And here lives old Martha, the apple-woman, who 
has rheumatism in her old bones. Could you not 
touch your wand to her back and make the pain go 
away? 

“And here is the little flower-girl, whose flowers 
wither before she can sell them. Could you not 
touch the faded blossoms with your magic wand 
and cause them to send out their perfume and put 
life into their petals?” 

Nim-nim listened to her Queen and then she 
said: “But, my Queen, surely golden wings cannot 
be won by working in such poor and humble places 
as these. I must do big deeds and save a king’s 
daughter or do some royal deed, I am sure, before 
such beautiful golden wings as my sisters wear can 
be won.” 

“Do not think these will be deeds of low degree,” 
said the Queen; “the brightest wings are won by the 
humblest deeds, as you call them. Nim-nim, you 
have looked only in the palace for your work ; golden 
wings are not easily won, as you say, but if you are 
willing to do the work you find here, you will soon 
have a pair of wings that will outshine all others. 
Let me see if you are worthy to wear them.” 

Off went the Queen, leaving Nim-nim alone with 
the work she did not care to do. 

“What glory can there be in helping these poor 


NIM-NIM’S GOLDEN WINGS 


47 

creatures?" she thought; "but I must have my wings, 
so I will try to do what the Queen wishes." 

It took more than one night for Nim-nim to do all 
the work she found in the street of sorrow and suffer- 
ing, but soon she became so happy in doing good and 
seeing the happiness she could give that she quite 
forgot the golden wings for which she had been 
working. 

One night the Queen called Nim-nim. "You have 
won the golden wings," she told her, touching her 
with her wand, and the little dell where they stood 
grew bright as with the sunlight. 

"Oh, what is it shines so brightly?" asked Nim-nim. 

"Your golden wings, my dear," said the Queen, 
with a smile; "your kind deeds have polished them 
until they are like the sun in brightness." 

Nim-nim thanked the Queen and flew away to her 
work with the thought that she would never let her 
wings grow dim by neglecting the deeds of kindness 
that she could do, no matter where she found them. 



T HE GOLDEN CHAIN 
Part I 

O NCE there was a Prince who fell in love with a 
beautiful Princess, and they were to be married; 
but on the night of the wedding a wicked old witch 
appeared at the door of the castle and said she had 
not been bidden to the wedding feast, and because 
of that she must see the King. 

The King told the servants to send the witch away, 
but the old woman pushed past the servants and 
appeared in the banquet-hall before any one could 
stop her. 

“You did not bid me to come to the feast, my King,” 
she said, waving her cane high above her head; “but 
I have come unbidden, and because of the neglect I 
will give to you for your wedding gift, my pretty 
Princess, this,” 


THE GOLDEN CHAIN 


49 


When the cane she held fell to her side again, in the 
place of the bridegroom Prince there stood a lion 
shaking his shaggy mane and looking anything but 
like a creature one would wish to live with. 

“Ha, ha, ha!” cackled the old witch, hobbling 
away. “Spend your honeymoon in a lion’s den, my 
pretty Princess/’ she said; “only the magic golden 
chain placed around his neck will restore to you 
your Prince.” 

Before any one could stop her the witch had dis- 
appeared, leaving the Princess and the lion standing 
before the King. 

“Take that beast away!” roared the King. “There 
will be no wedding to-day.” 

“Yes, there will be a wedding, father,” said the 
Princess. “I promised to marry the Prince, and I 
love him, and whether he has the form of a lion or a 
man I shall be true to him.” 

The poor lion rubbed his head against the Princess 
to show his love and appreciation, and in spite of all 
that could be said or done by the King the Princess 
would marry the lion. 

“You shall not live in the castle,” said the King. 
“I’ll have no wild beast in my house even if you have 
him for your husband.” 

“Very well, we will live in the forest back of the 
castle,” said the Princess. “There is a little cottage, 
and we will live there until I find the golden chain which 
the witch said would restore him to his own shape.” 


5 ° 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


One night when the Princess was asleep in her bed 
and the lion husband was on the floor beside the bed 
the Princess heard a tapping at the window, and when 
she awoke she saw a little bird tapping on the pane. 

Quickly the Princess arose and went to the window 
and opened it, and in flew the bird. 

“A fairy has sent me,” it whispered. “Come, we 
will find the golden chain.” 

The Princess gave one look at her sleeping husband, 
for she knew she was the only friend he had in the 
world, and if anything happened to her he was lost; 
but the bird whispered again, “Come, this is your 
only chance to get the chain.” 

The Princess no longer hesitated, but went with the 
bird into the forest. 

“Follow where I lead,” said the bird, flying before 
the Princess. He led her to a tree and tapped on the 
trunk three times with his bill, and the bark which 
covered a small door peeled off and the bird dropped 
at the feet of the Princess a tiny gold key. 

“Open the door with this,” said the bird, and when 
the Princess had unlocked it the bird said, “Now 
my part is done; you must enter alone.” And away 
he flew. 

The Princess stepped inside the tree, the door closed 
with a little click, and the Princess was alone in the 
dark. 

But it was dark for only a second, for she saw a 
bright light ahead of her, and to this she went, 


THE GOLDEN CHAIN 


5i 


Here sat a white rabbit, with pink eyes and very 
long ears. “Get on my back,” it said to the Princess, 
“if you wish to find the golden chain.” 

“But you are so small,” said the Princess. “How 
can you carry me?” 

“If you wish to find the chain you will have to get 
on my back,” said the rabbit. 

The rabbit stood up and the Princess got on its 
back, but she had no sooner made the attempt to be 
seated than the rabbit turned into a white fox and 
trotted off with her. 

The Princess held tightly to his ears, which seemed 
to be very long, and she was not sure whether it was 
the rabbit grown larger or a fox she was riding on. 

But presently they came to a river, and the fox 
stopped and told her to dismount, and then the 
Princess saw it was a fox with a beautiful white 
bushy tail. 

“You must pull my tail,” he said to the Princess, 
“and you will have to pull hard, .too, if you wish to 
find the golden chain, for I must have my own form 
again, and you need what you will find in your hand 
when you pull hard.” 

The Princess by this time was not surprised at any 
strange thing she was told to do, so she took hold of 
the tail of the fox with both hands and pulled very 
hard, and there stood the rabbit again with his stubby 
tail and long ears, while in her hand the Princess 
held the bushy white tail of the fox. 


52 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“Oh, dear! I am so sorry,” said the Princess, looking 
first at the tail in her hand and then at the rabbit. 

“What are you sorry for?” asked the rabbit. 

“Because I pulled off your tail,” answered the 
Princess. 

“Oh, don’t feel sorry for me,” said the rabbit. 
“That is not my tail; I have all I ever owned; but you 
keep that white, bushy tail; you will need it. 

“Well, my part is done and I must be off, and you 
must cross the river. Good-by.” 

Off went the rabbit with long leaps, and the Princess 
stood waiting for some one else to appear to take her 
across the river. 

But no one came, and so she knew she must try 
to get across alone; but she could not swim, and as her 
feet touched the cold water she began to be afraid. 
But in her hand she still grasped the bushy white 
tail of the fox, and as she touched the water she felt 
something warm in her hand; the tail had turned 
into a beautiful big white swan. 

“Jump on my back,” it said to the Princess. 

Part II 

The Princess got on the swan’s back and away 
they sailed to a big rock in the middle of the river. 

When they reached the rock the swan said, “Pull 
out one of my tail feathers.” 

So the Princess pulled, and in her hand she again 


THE GOLDEN CHAIN 


53 


held the bushy tail of the fox, all white and fluffy, 
and the swan had disappeared. 

The Princess found herself all alone again, and she 
wondered what she should do, when she saw a path 
which led right inside the rock. So she walked in. 

Down, down, the Princess seemed to go as she 
walked along the path, and all at once she found 
herself in a beautiful cavern which she knew must be 
under the ocean, because she could hear the roaring 
of the sea. 

The cave was hung with seaweed and moss and bits 
of crystal which sparkled in the light that seemed to 
pour in through them, though where it came from 
the Princess could not tell. 

The bottom of the cave was covered with beautiful 
v hite sand and pink shells and mother-of-pearl rocks 
and white coral. 

Little green bushes and pinkish shrubs grew among 
the rocks and something that shone like gold glistened 
in the sand. 

The Princess heard some one singing, so she hid 
behind a rock, as she felt she might be in the garden 
of some beautiful and wonderful palace; and she did 
not know how to explain her presence. 

The singing came nearer, and, peeking out from the 
rock behind which she was hiding, the Princess saw 
ten beautiful maidens with baskets of pearl on their 
arms picking up the bright, glistening specks from 
the sand. These they put in their baskets, and then 


54 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


the Princess saw them sit down in a circle and begin 
to take from their baskets the bright gold bits. 

Each of the maidens would take a bit of gold in her 
hand and between her forefingers and thumbs she 
would weave back and forth, all of them singing as 
they worked. 

“ Sisters, weave the golden chain, 

To hang around the lion's mane. 

Princess, bring the white fox’s tail; 

Our silver boat must have a sail." 

“The white fox’s tail,” thought the Princess; “why, 

I have it in my hand! Can it be they are weaving 
the golden chain that will release my husband from 
the cruel spell of the old witch?” 

She listened again and heard very clearly what they 
sang: 

“ For the lion Prince this chain we make, 

The cruel spell of the witch to break. 

Come, Princess, with the white fox's tail; 

Our silver boat must have a sail.” 

Then the Princess knew what she was to do, and 
she stepped out from behind the rock and said, 
“I am here, beautiful maidens; here is the tail of the 
white fox.” 

Up jumped the beautiful maidens and surrounded 
the Princess. 

“Oh, you dear, kind Princess!” they all exclaimed. 
“How good of you to bring us the beautiful white 


THE GOLDEN CHAIN 


55 


fluffy sail for our boat and how hard you must have 
worked to get it! 

“A fairy told us what the cruel witch had done on 
your wedding-day and we wanted to help you, and she 
told us we could weave the chain from the gold at the 
bottom of the ocean, as that was the only kind that 
would free your Prince from the cruel spell which 
holds him. 

‘ ‘ The fairy told us you would wish to give us some- 
thing in return, and we asked for the tail of a white 
fox to put on our silver boat for a sail but when she 
told us what trouble you would have to get it we 
wanted to change the wish. That, the fairy said, 
could not be done, for a wish made could not be 
changed, or the spell which began it would be 
broken.” 

“ Oh, I did not have any trouble,” said the Princess. 
“I am very glad you wished for the tail of the white 
fox, and I cannot thank you enough for this golden 
chain.” 

“We will put it in a little pearl box for you,” said 
one of the maidens, taking from her basket a beautiful 
little box of mother-of-pearl and dropping the chain 
into it. 

“And now let us take the Princess over the river 
to the forest,” said the maid who gave the Princess 
the box, “in our silver boat and use our new sail.” 

“Come, Princess, we will take you across the river,” 
they said, and then for the first time the Princess saw 


56 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


a beautiful river at one end of the cave and a beautiful 
silver boat with trimmings of mother-of-pearl. 

Into this they all got, and put up the big white tail 
for a sail, and away they glided over the water, and 
the first thing the Princess knew she was again at the 
bank of the river where the white fox left her. 

“Good-by, Princess,” said all the maidens. “We 
hope you will be very happy, and we hope, too, you 
will keep the chain and box to remember us by.” 

The Princess told them she would never forget 
them, and the box and chain she would prize above 
all of her possessions. 

Away they sailed, leaving the Princess alone, 
wondering if she could find her way back to the 
cottage where she had left her lion husband asleep. 

“Put on these shoes,” said a voice. 

The Princess looked beside her, and there, on a bush, 
was a fairy, and beside the bush were two shoes with 
tiny wings on them. 

When the Princess had put on the shoes the fairy 
said, “Now hold the box of mother-of-pearl tightly 
and close your eyes.” 

The Princess felt something touch her arm lightly 
and knew the fairy had touched her with her wand, 
and the next thing she knew the Princess found her- 
self at the door of her cottage, with the box still 
clasped in her hand, but the shoes were gone. 

She opened the door and went in softly. The lion 
was still, 


THE GOLDEN CHAIN 


57 


From the box the Princess took the golden chain and 
threw it over the head of the lion, and instantly there 
was the Prince in place of the beast. 

The Prince opened his eyes, and when he saw what 
had happened he got up and took the Princess in his 
arms and kissed her, and told her there was no one in 
the world half as good and beautiful as she was. 

Of course the Princess told him all about her finding 
of the chain and showed him the mother-of-pearl box, 
but when they looked for the chain it had disappeared, 
But the box was prised by both the Princess and 
her husband as long as they lived. 

When the King saw that his son-in-law was no 
longer a lion he welcomed him to his castle, where 
they all lived happily, and when the King died the 
Prince and Princess reigned in his place. 



THE LOST FAIRY 
Part I 

NCE upon a time there was a fairy who married 



V-/ a mortal, though her husband did not know 
she was a fairy. 

It happened that one night a fairy strayed from her 
Queen and her sister fairies and flew away to the top 
of a mountain, where there lived a poor peasant youth 
who was very handsome. 

The fairy found the peasant asleep outside his door 
in the moonlight, and when she saw his handsome 
face she fell in love with him. 

But, of course, she knew she could never be his 
wife as long as she remained a fairy, so she flew away 
to an old witch for whom she had done many kind- 
nesses and told her she wanted to become a mortal, 


THE LOST FAIRY 


59 

for she had fallen in love with a mortal and could 
never be happy again without his love. 

“You know what will happen if you are discovered 
by your Queen, even if you have been changed into 
a mortal,” said the old witch. 

“Yes, I know,” said the fairy; “but I would risk 
even that to be the wife of my beautiful love. Change 
me quickly, I beg you, Mother Witch, that I may re- 
turn to him before he awakes.” 

So the old witch changed her into a beautiful girl 
and gave her a pair of shoes to wear while climbing 
the mountain. 

“These shoes you must throw over the mountain- 
side as soon as you reach the top,” said the witch, 
“as they are enchanted, and if the fairy Queen or any 
of your sisters saw them they would know at once 
you were the fairy who ran away ; for they will never 
cease to hunt for you.” 

The fairy-girl promised she would do as the witch 
told her, and slipped the shoes on her feet, and up the 
mountain she glided and stood beside the sleeping 
peasant. She quite forgot the shoes, so anxious was 
she to awaken her lover. The peasant opened his 
eyes, and when he saw the beautiful girl he fell in love 
with her and asked her to be his wife. 

The next night the fairy Queen called her fairies 
and found one was missing. “Look for her,” com- 
manded the Queen. “Look high and low, and if she 
has run away she shall suffer the penalty.” 


6o 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


So the little fairies flew away. They looked under 
the stones, they looked under the leaves, they even 
looked into the river, but nowhere could they find 
their sister fairy and they gave her up for lost. 

But not so the Queen. “She must be found,” she 
told the fairies. “No fairy can be lost forever. 
Either she has run away and became a mortal or she 
can be found. Look on the tops of all the mountains 
to-night and I will go with you.” 

The fairy-girl was very happy with her husband 
and he loved her very dearly, but where she came 
from she would never tell him, and that sometimes 
made him quite unhappy. 

The shoes the witch had told the fairy-girl to throw 
over the side of the mountain she had hidden under a 
bush, thinking some day she might need them; and 
there the Fairy Queen found them and knew they 
were magic shoes. 

“She is on the mountain-top,” said the Queen; 
“we must find her. I feel sure she has become a 
mortal. She shall be punished well for this.” 

So the fairies and the Queen flew about the mountain 
until they came to the cottage where the peasant and 
the fairy-girl lived, and looked in the window. 

At first the Queen was not sure that the fairy-girl 
was the runaway fairy, but she knew that if she were 
the lost fairy she would see her when she tapped on 
the window. So the Queen made herself invisible to 
mortal eyes, that the peasant might not see her, but 


THE LOST FAIRY 


6 1 


she knew that the girl, if she ever had been a fairy, 
would always be able to behold her Queen. 

“Tap, tap, tap," went the Queen’s wand on the 
window, and quick as a thought the fairy-girl looked 
up and saw her Queen. 

She turned very pale and her husband caught her 
in his arms, but she told him it was only the prick of 
her needle on her finger that had made her faint and 
that she was not ill. 

That night when her husband was asleep the fairy- 
girl stole out of the house, for she knew the Queen 
had come for her, and there was only one chance of 
escape, and that was to get the shoes and reach the 
old witch before the Queen could touch her with her 
wand. 

She closed the door very softly and started for the 
bush where the magic shoes were hidden, and just as 
she put out her hand to take them, out of the shoes 
jumped the fairies; and the Queen, who had been 
hiding under one of them, reached out with her wand 
and touched the girl fairy on her head. 

Part II 

No sooner had the fairy Queen touched the fairy- 
girl on her head than she became a white rabbit and 
ran into the woods. 

“You see what will happen to you, my fairies, if 
you run away or become a mortal,” said the Queen. 

5 


62 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“You will be changed into a white rabbit and can 
never again become a fairy; and a white rabbit you 
will remain, for there is only one way you can become 
a mortal then and that is not likely to happen.” 

The little fairies said they never, never would run 
away from the Queen as that fairy had done; and they 
looked with sad eyes toward the spot where the little 
white rabbit had disappeared in the woods. 

When the peasant awoke and found his wife was 
not there he jumped out of his bed and looked every- 
where in the house. 

First he looked under the bed, thinking she had 
played a joke on him and hidden there; then he looked 
in the closet and in the attic, but nowhere could he 
find her. 

He looked the mountain over for her, but she had 
gone and left no trace; her disappearance was as 
mysterious as her coming, and the peasant began 
to wonder if, after all, she might not have been a 
fairy. 

One day when he sat outside his cottage door, 
weeping for his lost wife, a little white rabbit ran up 
beside him and began to rub its head against his leg. 
The peasant reached down and took it up in his lap 
and stroked its head. “Poor creature, have you lost 
your mate?” he said. 

When he put it on the ground, to his surprise it 
did not run into the woods, but stayed close beside 
him. 


THE LOST FAIRY 


63 


When he went inside the cottage the rabbit hopped 
up to the door-sill, too, and the peasant took pity on 
it and took it in the cottage. 

He fed it with lettuce and green things, and made 
a bed for it close beside his own, for somehow the 
little white rabbit seemed to comfort him when he 
thought of his lost wife. 

Ofte day when he was walking about the mountain 
he saw a pair of shoes under a bush ; they were so small 
he wondered if they were magic shoes. He took them 
into his cottage and put them on the floor. No 
sooner did the white rabbit see the shoes than it ran 
and sat down beside them, poking at them with its 
nose. 

So close beside the shoes did the little rabbit keep 
that the peasant picked it up and put it in one of the 
shoes. 

But no sooner had the rabbit touched the inside 
of the shoe than out of the door went the shoe with 
the rabbit, and ran so fast the peasant, who tried to 
follow, could not keep up with it. 

He kept on running, however, and saw the little 
shoe go swiftly down the mountain and into the 
woods at the foot of it. 

The peasant kept on, and when the shoe came to * 
the door of the cave of the old witch it stopped. 

When the old witch came out and saw the shoe 
with the white rabbit in it she said: “So the Queen 
found you, didn’t she? I told you to throw the shoes 


64 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


down the side of the mountain. Why didn’t you do 
as I told you? 

“ There is only one thing that can save you now, 
and that is that some mortal should ask you to marry 
him; and that will not be likely to happen, for mortals 
do not care to marry little white rabbits.” 

The little rabbit hung its head, but it could not 
speak, although it heard what the witch said. 

But the peasant, who had heard also every word 
said by the witch, began to understand, and he ran 
to the witch and said: ‘‘I will marry the little white 
rabbit, Mother Witch. Give us your blessing.” 

The witch waved her cane over him as he picked 
up the little white rabbit from the shoe, and there in 
his arms the peasant found his wife again, and this 
time she was a mortal for good and all time ; the fairy 
spell had passed from her. 

“I give you my blessing,” said the witch, “and a 
present besides when you reach home; let the first 
thing you do be to look in the other magic shoe,” 
she said to the wife; “then throw the shoe down 
the side of the mountain or the same fate that 
happened to you will happen to what you find in 
the shoe.” 

The wife promised she would keep her promise 
this time, and that as soon as she reached home the 
shoe should be thrown away. 

The peasant and his wife thanked the old. witch 
and hurried back to their cottage, and when they 


THE LOST FAIRY 65 

looked inside the magic shoe what did they see but a 
dear little baby girl smiling up at them. 

The wife picked it up and hugged it close to her 
and said to her husband, “ Lose no time, take the shoe 
and throw it far over the side of the mountain; my 
baby must remain a mortal, for she might not be as 
lucky as I was in finding a mortal who would be 
willing to marry a little white rabbit to find his wife.” 

The peasant lost no time in throwing away the 
magic shoe, and then he ran back to the cave of the 
old witch and asked her to be godmother to their 
little girl and the old witch was so pleased that she 
waved over the baby girl her cane and said as a gift 
she would cause the baby always to be happy and 
grow up into a beautiful and good woman. 

Whether the fairy Queen ever knew what became 
of the white rabbit the peasant and his wife never 
knew, but if she did the little fairies never were told, 
for the Queen was too wise. 

She would never be sure of any of the fairies staying 
with her if there was chance of their being finally as 
happy as was the fairy sister who ran away and 
married a mortal. 



THE SORCERESS AND THE PEARL 
NCE upon a time there lived in a far-off land a 



V_y very good King who was always doing some 
kindness for his subjects. 

Because he was so good an old sorceress who lived 
in a cave in the forest disliked him, and besides, she 
wanted her son to be king. 

One day while the King was hunting in the forest 
he chanced to stray from his servants and wandered 
past the cave of the sorceress. 

“Ah! now is my chance,” said the sorceress, when 
she saw the King. “ My son shall reign in your place 
from this day forth. 

“Let me give you a cup of cool water, my son,” 
said the sorceress to the King, offering him a cup filled 
with a clear fluid just like water, but which was a 
magic drink she always had on hand, 


THE SORCERESS AND THE PEARL 67 

No sooner had the King drunk it than he began to 
shrivel up, and his horse also. 

“Ha! ha!" cackled the sorceress, “you will soon 
dry up and blow away and my son will be King in 
your place. 

“No, I will change you into a toad and your horse 
into a rock so that I may have you to laugh at,” she 
said, as she waved her cane over the King and his 
horse as they grew smaller every minute. 

The next minute a huge toad was hopping close to 
a big rock that appeared near the door of the cave, 
and the old sorceress laughed loud and long at the 
wickedness she had wrought. 

The servants hunted everywhere for their King, 
and at last returned to the castle, thinking he was 
lost, but what was their surprise to find the King 
sitting on the throne safe and sound — at least, they 
thought it was their King, but it was the son of the 
sorceress in the King’s form. 

But his heart was not that of the good King, even 
if his form was, and the people soon began to wonder 
what had changed their good, kind King into a wicked 
ruler. 

He took away their land and money and made 
himself so rich and powerful that all the kings were 
afraid to go to war with him. He imprisoned all those 
who refused to give their wealth to him, until the 
people were in despair of ever being comfortable and 
happy again. 


68 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


The poor toad who had once been a king could 
only hop about the rock that had once been his horse, 
for he knew he could never get out of the forest in 
his present form, and the old sorceress poked him 
with her cane and laughed every time she beheld him. 

“There is only one chance for you,” she said one 
day. “ If you only could find the magic pearl for me 
which I long to possess, I will change you back to your 
own form again.” 

This magic pearl the sorceress wanted because it 
would give her a charmed life. She would live forever, 
and with that and her magic art she knew there was 
nothing she could not do, but the pearl she had never 
found, though she knew it was in the forest and be- 
longed to the fairies. 

The poor toad thought he might as well try to find 
the moon in the forest as the pearl, so he hopped under 
the rock as far as he could, blinking to keep back the 
tears. 

That night he was awakened by hearing something 
near him like the fluttering of wings, and when the 
toad opened his eyes he saw two little fairies rolling 
a beautiful object close beside him. 

“We will leave it here until to-morrow night,” said 
one fairy. “This pearl must not be found by any 
one, for our Queen would be in danger if the sorceress 
got possession of it.” 

The poor toad did not want to hurt the fairy Queen, 
but he did want to be changed back into his own form, 


THE SORCERESS AND THE PEARL 69 

so the next morning he took the pearl in his mouth 
and hopped to the door of the sorceress’s cave. 

When she saw the pearl she gave a shriek of delight 
and was just about to raise her cane and change the 
toad to the King again when she remembered that 
this would take away the throne from her son. 

She decided to kill the toad and take the pearl, for 
the toad held it in his mouth, ready to swallow it if 
she did not give him his own form again. 

“ Die, wretch!” she said, raising her cane and bring- 
ing it down on the head of the poor toad, but the 
magic did not work as she expected. 

There was a flash of light, noise like thunder shook 
the forest, and when it was over there stood the King, 
and his horse beside him, and the witch was nowhere 
to be seen, nor her cave either. 

On the ground behind him the King saw the pearl, 
which he picked up and tucked far under a rock close 
by so the fairies could find it, and then he rode out 
of the forest to his castle. 

The sorceress’s son was still on the throne, for he 
knew nothing of what had happened; but when the 
people saw their own good King they knew him and 
drove the wicked King from the castle. 

The good King gave back all the land and the money 
the wicked King had taken fiom the people and 
restored peace to the land. He had the forest searched 
and the sorceress’s son found, for the King did not 
blame him for all his suffering, and made him a 


70 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


servant in the castle where he had once been King. 
He became a good servant, though he had been a bad 
King, and all lived happily ever after in the castle 
and the country around, for the sorceress was never 
heard 'of again. 



THE FAIRIES’ DOLLS 

O NE day every year the Queen of the fairies gives 
her little subjects a holiday upon which they 
can ask for anything they wish, and if the Queen 
thinks it is best and good she grants the wish. 

Being a very, very wise little Queen, she sometimes 
has to refuse to grant a wish, for, of course, she knows 
what is right and best for the little fairies, and she 
loves them dearly. 

So usually they get that for which they wish, and 
it was on such a day that one little fairy asked for a 
doll. “Just like the little mortal children,” she said, 
“with pretty dresses.” 

The Queen was very thoughtful for a minute, for 
no one had ever asked for a doll in fairyland, and she 
was puzzled to know where one could be had. 

“Oh, dear Queen, we all would love to have a pretty 


72 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


doll to play with once in a while,” said all the fairies, 
crowding about the Queen. 

“I will grant your wish upon one condition,” said 
the Queen, “and that is you must put them away 
when you finish playing with them, for if you do not 
you will cause a great deal of trouble.” 

Of course each little fairy promised faithfully to 
put away her doll as soon as ever she was through 
playing with it, so their Queen told them to meet her 
at midnight the next night, and they should have 
their dolls. 

Oh, how busy all the little fairies were the next day 
you cannot think. They flew about hither and thither 
doing all the commands of their good Queen, and not 
once did one fairy get careless and let a mortal catch 
a glimpse of her. 

Just as the midnight hour struck the next night 
all the fairies gathered in the dell and their Queen 
told them to follow her. 

She led them over hill and down dale, and presently 
into a beautiful-big garden filled with all sorts of flowers. 

Past all of them she flew until she came to the tall 
hollyhocks standing by the stone wall at the end of 
the garden. 

“Here are your dolls, my dear fairies,” said the 
Queen. “Take one apiece.” 

The little fairies looked about and then at their 
Queen. “But where are the dolls?” they asked, 
“We see only flowers," 


THE FAIRIES’ DOLLS 


73 


“The hollyhock flowers are your dolls,” said the 
Queen, touching each blossom with her wand; and a 
tiny face appeared on each flower as the blossom 
jumped from its place on the stalk. 

Oh, how the little fairies jumped about and laughed, 
for each had a doll with a gaily colored dress, crimson, 
purple, white, and red, and no mortal child ever had 
such beautiful dolls, they all told the Queen. 

“Now remember, you are to put each doll back in 
its place as soon as you finish playing with it,” warned 
the Queen. “If I find one out of place I shall take 
them away.” 

All through the night the little fairies played with 
their hollyhock dolls in the garden, and never were 
dolls taken better care of. Not one was broken, or a 
dress torn, and when the faint streak of dawn showed 
in the sky, back the dolls were placed on the big stalk 
and when the morning sun looked into the garden all 
the hollyhocks were blooming more brightly colored 
than ever. 

The Queen went through the garden, but not a doll 
did she find out of its place, and every night while the 
hollyhocks bloom, if you could see with fairy eyes you 
would see at midnight the fairies all taking dolls and 
playing with them under the flowers. 

You would see, too, that each little fairy never 
forgot to put away her doll before she went home, 
and that is the reason she always could find it the 
next night, with its pretty dress all fresh and bright. 



THE GOSSIPING SPRING FLOWERS 
HE spring flowers peeped out from their soft 



1 bud coverings to see if it really was spring- 
time and, feeling encouraged by the warm rays of old 
Mr. Sun Man, they peeped out a little more and looked 
about them. 

The singing pines saw them and gently whispered, 
“Go back, my pretty spring flowers, go back; Winter 
had not yet gone.” 

The tall pine always knows when Winter has left 
for his cold Northland, and the long cold moans which 
he sends out all winter change to a soft and gentle song 
of spring. Of course he sings all winter, too, but it 
is a high, clear note he then sends out over the bare 
woods, so when he saw the tender spring flowers he 
gave them warning. 

But the flowers were so warm and comfortable they 


THE GOSSIPING SPRING FLOWERS 


75 


only laughed at the warning of the tall pine and said : 
“What do you know of spring ? You are still wearing 
your old winter clothes. You are jealous, I am sure, 
of our pretty new clothes and want to keep us out of 
sight as long as possible. The sun is shining bright 
and warm, and to-morrow we shall be out in all our 
pink and lavender and white dresses.” 

“Better go back to sleep, my tender friends,” 
warned the tall pine, and this time his voice grew 
louder as he sang the song of warning, but the little 
flowers only laughed. 

The next day old Mr. Sun Man shone warm and 
bright again, and out came the flowers in all their 
pretty colored gowns. 

“Just look at the pines,” said one. “They are all 
wearing their winter clothes and look very shabby 
beside us in our new clothes.” 

“Yes, and there are the pussy-willows,” said 
another. “Just look at the whole family all wearing 
their fur coats? Poor things, I suppose they have no 
new frocks to show.” 

“I cannot understand how they can show them- 
selves when they are dressed so out of fashion. Why, 
even the shrubs that have no colored gowns are 
putting on fresh green dresses,” said another flower. 

“I do not see how we can associate with those 
pussy-willows this year,” said a big flowering bush. 
“They really are so behind the fashion.” 

“Better go back; better go back and keep warm a 


76 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


little longer,” sang the tall pine, and all his brothers 
joined in the warning. 

“We shall not go back,” said a prickly little bush 
near by. “You and the pussy-willows are trying to 
keep us out of sight because we are so pretty. I think 
my yellow is prettier than ever this year, and if you 
and the pussies had pretty gowns you would be 
singing a different tune, old winter pines.” 

The poor little pussy-willows hugged their fur coats 
closer as the spring flowers gossiped about them, but 
not a sign nor a hint did they give that they heard 
any of the cruel things they said. 

By and by the singing pines grew softer, and even 
the pussy-willows began to think spring was very 
near. The flowers grew bolder in the warm sun, and 
some of them put on all their finery — that means they 
opened all their buds. 

Then suddenly came the voice of the singing pines 
clearer and sharper as the sun slowly went down 
behind the hills. “Look out! Look out! Winter is 
still here!” they sang. 

The little spring flowers shivered and shook with 
the cold, but it was too late to get inside their buds 
again. Old Winter caught them and nipped each 
pretty flower. 

When the sun came up the next morning there they 
lay on the ground, quite still, all their pretty clothes of 
which they had been so proud quite spoiled. 

“Oh, the pretty, soft pussy-willows!” said the 


THE GOSSIPING SPRING FLOWERS 


77 


children who came through the woods. “They kept 
on their fur coats and they are safe. We shall have no 
spring flowers this year. The cold north wind caught 
them.” 

When the spring days came the singing pines sang 
soft and low, but only a few spring flowers came out 
in their pretty spring clothes. They were the ones 
who did not make fun of the pussy-willows and the 
tall pines in their winter clothes. 

They kept hidden in their buds and waited for the 
singing pines to give the springtime song, but after 
they were out they did not gossip about the pussy- 
willows in their fur coats. They knew that the 
pussies were wiser than they because they lived all 
through the winter days, and even if they did wear 
their fur coats all summer they were so soft and gray 
that one could not help but admire them. 

6 



THE WATER-LILY’S LOVER 

T HERE was once a water-lily that grew in a pond 
with her sister lilies, but instead of opening wide 
her waxen petals at sunrise as did the other lilies, 
she opened only half her real size. 

While the other lilies opened wide and showed their 
sea-shell, pink-tinted faces to the sun, she peeped out 
as if afraid she would be seen and admired. 

“Sister,” said the other lilies, one morning, “why 
do you not open wide to greet the sun? Surely he 
loves us dearly. Are you not as beautiful as the 
rest of us?” 

“Yes, my sisters, I am far more beautiful, I am 
sure, than any of you,” answered the water-lily, “but 
my beauty is for only one, the one I love most dearly.” 

“And is he not the sun, sister?” they all asked. 
“The sun is our lover and the only one we shall 


THE WATER-LILY’S LOVER 


79 


ever have. Why not open wide your heart and let 
his warm rays give you sweet perfume?” 

“But the sun is not my lover; it is the lover of us 
all, and the one I love must love me alone,” answered 
the lily. “ I cannot love a lover whom I must share.” 

“How silly she talks!” said the others. “None of 
us can have a lover all to ourselves. We have the sun. 
What more does one want or ask?” 

“ It must be very uncomfortable to have a lover all 
alone, for he would expect you always to bloom beauti- 
ful and sweet, but our sun lover has us all and if one 
happens not to be as beautiful as the other some 
morning he finds no fault.” 

The water-lily continued to open her beautiful self 
but half-way each morning, and then one day she did 
not open at all, but nodded on the pond’s smooth 
surface as her sister lilies opened wide their blossoms 
to the morning sun. 

“What can be the matter?” they all asked. “Our 
sister seems to be soundly sleeping. Surely the night- 
time is enough. She should awake with the rest of 
us.” 

“ If you had been awake all night long, as she has,” 
said a butterfly that was passing over the pond and 
heard the lilies talking, “you would not be awake 
this morning.” 

“What would keep our sister awake all night?” 
asked the lilies. 

“Her lover,” said the butterfly. “I went to sleep 


8o 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


on a bush by the pond last night, and when a breeze 
sprang up it dipped and touched the water so I had 
to fly for my life. It was a narrow escape, I can tell 
you.” 

“But- what of that?” asked the lilies. “What has 
that to do with our sister, and how do you know she 
has a lover?” 

“Oh yes, I forgot that part,” said the butterfly. 
“Your sister lily’s lover is the moon. I saw it all with 
my own eyes.” And off he went, leaving the lilies 
quite upset with astonishment. 

A little later the sleeping lily opened her blossom 
half-way and peeped out. 

“We have learned your secret,” said the others. 
“Your lover is the moon.” 

The lily opened wide, as if in defiance, and said, 
“Yes, my lover is the moon and he loves only me.” 

“But tell us, sister,” asked the other lilies, “why 
do you choose the cold moon for your lover? Surely 
he is not so warm and loving as the sun, and he is so 
very far away.” 

“The sun is not close to you, yet you .ove him,” 
answered the lily. 

“But why have a lover that you have to stay awake 
for all the night-time, when you can have the sun, 
with the rest of us, and sleep at night?” said her sister 
lilies. 

“Have you never heard that time and space are 
naught to them that love?” asked the lily. 


THE WATER-LILY’S LOVER 


81 


The sister lilies did not reply, but that night, when 
the moon was high in the starry sky over the pond, 
they peeped sleepily at their sister and her lover and 
saw him looking straight into her beautiful face, which 
looked so waxen and pure in the silver light of her 
lover’s smile that she did not seem to belong to their 
world at all. 

“Isn’t she beautiful?” asked one lily of another. 
“I had never thought her beauty greater than ours 
before.” 

“It is love, sister,” answered the other lily. “She 
loves the moon, and all the glory of her love shows 
when he smiles back at her. To be loved for yourself 
alone and have your lover all your own must be very 
sweet.” 

“But she has to stay awake all night,” said the 
other. “I could never do that for any one.” 

“He who loves little gets little in return,” said the 
lily. “Our sister lily seems to have learned many 
things we know not of.” 

All the lilies closed their petals tight and slept 
through the long night, but the lily who loved the 
moon opened wide her waxen petals and saw the smile 
of her lover as clearly as if he were close beside her as 
she murmured, soft and low, “Oh, time and space are 
naught to them that love.” 



THE RENTED HOUSE 

“T AM tired of living behind blinds and under the 
1 eaves of houses,” said Mrs. Sparrow to her hus- 
band one morning. “Why don’t you get a nice home 
for me in a tree, the same as all the Mr. Robins do for 
their families?” 

As everybody knows, all the Sparrow family fathers 
and grandfathers and great-grandfathers never do 
anything if they can help it in the way of work that 
they can get some one else to do for them, and this 
particular Mr. Sparrow was not an exception to the 
rule. 

He hopped about on the top of the fence, where he 
and Mrs. Sparrow were sitting, standing first on one 
foot and then on the other, trying to think of some 
good excuse for not getting his wife a nest in a 
tree, 



THE RENTED HOUSE 


83 


“John Sparrow,” said his wife, “stand still a 
minute. You make my head dizzy hopping about so.” 

Mr. Sparrow stood still and blinked his bright 
little eyes. 

“Now answer me,” said Mrs. Sparrow, “why don’t 
you build a house in a tree instead of living in such 
tucked-away places as you do?” 

“How would it do to rent a house, my dear,” 
asked Mr. Sparrow, “and see if we like living in a tree 
before we build ? There is the cat to be considered, 
you know; she could never reach us behind a blind 
or under the eaves. But if you insist, my dear, I will 
look about to-day and see what is to be had.” 

“Well, I wish you would,” said his wife, “and 
I promise you a good dinner of crumbs, and perhaps 
I might find a fat worm if you succeed in finding a 
nice house.” 

Mr. Sparrow spread his wings and away he flew, 
for he knew his wife would keep her part of the 
bargain, and Mr. Sparrow was fond of eating. 

“I have found the very place for us,” he said, 
flying behind the blind where they lived, an hour 
later. “It is in the top of a big tree near a house, 
and I saw the maid throwing crumbs out in the 
yard, too.” 

“I don’t believe they were any bigger than these,” 
said Mrs. Sparrow, with pride in her voice as she 
showed three big pieces of cake to her husband. 

“No, they were not,” confessed Mr. Sparrow, 


8 4 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


eating them as fast as he could; “but you better pack 
up as soon as you can, my dear, for you never can tell 
about a house you rent; some one might come along 
and take it before we get there.” 

The nest Mr. Sparrow had found was a deserted 
nest some bird had left when it was time for him 
to go South, but this made no difference to the 
Sparrow family. Possession was all they asked; 
they could fight for anything they wanted, and 
usually get it, too. 

“John, you have shown good taste. This place is 
high and airy, and no cat could ever get out on this 
slender limb. I am sure we will be very happy and 
comfortable here,” said Mrs. Sparrow. 

“I do wish, though, there were a few leaves on this 
tree; it will be pretty chilly here nights, I am afraid,” 
said Mr. Sparrow. 

“Oh, John, you always think of such unpleasant 
things!” said Mrs. Sparrow. “Why, only a few days 
ago I saw Mr. Robin. You know yourself the grass is 
beginning to look green; it will soon be spring; in 
fact, I think it is here now.” 

“I have known it to snow when it was almost 
spring, and it would be far more comfortable behind 
a blind or under the eaves than up here if it did snow, 
my dear, I can tell you that.” 

“Snow,” said Mrs. Sparrow, with a toss of her head. 
“Why, the sun would melt it in no time at all. Feel 
how hot it is now.” 


THE RENTED HOUSE 


85 


“Yes, that may be,” said Mr. Sparrow, “but at 
night there is no sun, and the snow would make a 
very cold covering if it started in the night-time.” 

But Mrs. Sparrow only laughed at her husband’s 
fear and busied herself settling her house. 

That night when the sun went down Mrs. Sparrow 
shivered a little and crept close to her husband’s side, 
but she said nothing, and soon both were fast asleep. 

Some time in the night Mrs. Sparrow awoke with 
a start. She felt cold; in fact, she felt as though a 
cold wet blanket covered her instead of her nice warm 
feathers. 

She got up and shook herself. “Oh, John, some- 
thing terrible has happened! Do wake up!” she said. 
“I am so cold.” 

Mr. Sparrow opened his eyes. It was dark, but it 
did not need the light to tell him what had happened. 

“It is snowing, my dear,” he said. “We will have 
to keep close together until morning. Now don’t cry; 
nothing will happen to us.” 

“We will freeze, John Sparrow; I know we will,” 
cried Mrs. Sparrow, hugging close to her husband. 
“Oh dear! will it ever come morning?” 

At the very first ray of light Mrs. Sparrow hopped 
out of her new home and spread her wings. “ Come, 
John,” she said. “Let us go back to our old home 
behind the blinds. How anybody with sense can live 
in an open house like this I do not know. Why, it 
will be full of snow if it keeps on storming like this.” 


86 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“You are right, my dear, as you always are,” said 
wise Mr. Sparrow. “And if we had not been in the 
nest it would be heaping full now.” 

Mr. Sparrow heard no more about houses in trees, 
so he felt that a little inconvenience had brought him 
much comfort for the rest of his days. 



ROBIN REDBREAST’S CHERRY PIE 

I KNOW that my mother used to make cherry pie 
by this time when I lived at home,” said Robin 
Redbreast, as he sat on the edge of his nest smoking 
his pipe. 

“But, Robin,” pleaded Mrs. Redbreast, “cherries 
are not ripe at this time of the year. Why, just think, 
we have been north only a few weeks.” 

“You can talk and make all the excuses you like,” 
said Robin, removing his pipe, “but my mother used 
to give me cherry pie for dinner before this. You 
just don’t want to take the. trouble to please me, that 
is the reason.” 

Mrs. Redbreast bristled with anger, and she 
fluttered back and forth over the nest for a minute 
before she answered. 

“Robin, I do not know what has got into you, 


88 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


I ’most believe you need a good dose of herb-tea. It is 
not natural for you to be so unreasonable.” 

‘‘I am not , unreasonable at all,” replied Robin. 
“ I am just hungry for a piece of cherry pie like mother 
used to make, and you will not make one. I believe 
you are afraid to try, for fear they will not be as good 
as hers.” 

This was the first time since they had been married 
that Robin had shown such a bad temper, and Mrs. 
Robin did not know just how to manage. But she 
was a wise little bird, so she did not reply to this last 
remark of Robin’s, but put on her bonnet and flew 
over to the nest of an older bird and asked her advice. 

“He wants a cherry pie,” said Mrs. Robin, with 
tears in her pretty eyes, “and you know that cher- 
ries are not ripe enough for pies. Oh dear! I wish I 
knew just where my mother is living this summer. 
I would go home and he could just go back to his 
mother and see if she could make cherry pies before 
the cherries are ripe.” 

“There, there, my dear, have your cry out,” said 
the older bird, patting her on the back. 

Mrs. Robin sobbed as though her little heart would 
break and then she dried her eyes and said, with her 
eyes snapping: “I have a good mind to make him 
some pies out of those green cherries. It would serve 
him right if he was made sick from eating them.” 

“That is just where you are right, my dear,” said 
the older bird, “Now, wipe away your tears and on 


ROBIN REDBREAST’S CHERRY PIE 89 


your way home get the cherries and make the pie for 
supper; he will come to your way of thinking before 
morning, I promise you, and you will have a meek 
husband by sunrise.” 

“ Oh, but what if he should die?” asked Mrs. Robin; 
“some do, you know, when they eat cherries before 
they are ripe.” 

“Robin will not die; he won’t eat enough for that; 
but he will eat some of the pie, because he talked so 
much about it.” 

Mrs. Robin decided to take her friend’s advice, 
and on her way home she got the cherries. Robin 
was out when she reached home, and she bustled 
about making the pie, talking to herself as she worked. 

“ He will never be able to eat it,” she said, “no mat- 
ter how much sugar I use. I just as soon eat a lemon 
as those cherries. My mouth is full of water, just 
looking at them.” 

When Robin came home supper was on the table, 
and in front of his plate was the pie. 

“What is this?” he asked, looking at the pie. 

“It is a cherry pie,” said his wife; “I found some 
cherries while I was out this afternoon. I do hope 
it will taste good to you, but the cherries are not 
quite as ripe as they should be.” 

“I knew you could find cherries if you looked,” 
said Robin, cutting the pie. 

He looked rather disappointed when he saw the 
filling, but did not say anything. 


9 o SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

Mrs. Redbreast watched him as he took his first 
taste. 

“ How do you like it?” she asked. “ I know it must 
be like vinegar. It is too early, just as I said at first.” 

That was enough for Robin. He took another 
mouthful, and then another before he answered, but 
Mrs. Redbreast knew the pie tasted far from pleasant. 

‘‘It is nice,” said Robin, “very nice indeed. I 
think you ought to have used more sugar. Mother 
used to make hers sweeter than this, but you did 
very well indeed.” 

Poor Robin had a hard time to swallow another 
piece of the pie, but his wife sat watching and he had 
to eat. 

“I always go light on the first pie of the season,” 
he said, “so I will not eat any more to-night.” 

Mrs. Redbreast was glad to take away the pie, for 
she was very much afraid of what might happen from 
his having eaten two pieces. 

Robin went to bed early, but he did not sleep well ; 
he moved about and could not seem to find a com- 
fortable place, and when he did he dreamed and talked 
in his sleep. 

Long before morning he awoke with a terrible pain. 

“0-o-oh!” he cried. “Get the doctor, quick! I 
know I am going to die. I have such a dreadful 
pain.” 

Away flew Mrs. Redbreast for Doctor Raven, for 
she was really frightened; poor Robin seemed so ill. 


ROBIN REDBREAST’S CHERRY PIE 


9i 


Doctor Raven came in a hurry with his black bag 
of medicine. 

“You are very sick, very sick indeed, Robin. I 
should say you had eaten something that did not 
agree with you. Now what have you been eating, 
sir? What have you been eating?” 

Poor Robin was too sick and frightened to reply at 
first, but Doctor Raven asked again what he had for 
his supper. 

He said, “Only two pieces of cherry pie.” 

“Cherry pie at this time of the year!” exclaimed 
Doctor Raven. “Why, bless my soul, Robin, you 
must be crazy! 

“Why did you make cherry pie before the cherries 
are ripe?” he asked Mrs. Robin. 

“I knew he should not eat it,” she replied, “but 
Robin would have it. He said his mother used to 
make cherry pie at this time and he wanted one. Oh, 
do give him something, Doctor, to make him well, and 
I will not make another, no matter what he says, until 
cherries are ripe.” 

Doctor Raven opened his black bag and took out 
three bottles. Each one held a mixture that looked as 
though it tasted very bad. 

Poor Robin looked at them as the doctor poured 
them into a glass. “Drink that,” he said, handing it 
to Robin. 

Robin tasted and shook his head. “I can’t take 
that,” he said; “it is awful.” 


92 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


A sharp pain doubled him just then and he drank 
the rest of the medicine without a word. 

“There, I think that will fix him,” said Doctor 
Raven, putting on his hat. “ I guess he will not ask you 
for cherry pie again very soon, Mrs. Redbreast, and if 
he does don’t you give it to him. Neither my mother, 
nor any one’s mother, ever made cherry pies at this 
time of the year, and if foolish young husbands do not 
know what is good for them then their wives must tell 
them. Good night, or rather good morning. Here is 
the sun, and I have lost my sleep because a foolish 
fellow wanted cherry pie before it was time for it.” 

Robin did not open his eyes or speak for some time, 
and then he said: “My dear, I think I was a little 
hasty about that pie. My mother must have waited 
for ripe cherries. I am sure I will never find fault 
again with anything you cook or what you have on 
the table.” 



BOASTFUL SPIDER AND THE CLOCK 



NCE upon a time there lived in an attic a spider 


who spun and spun until his web covered all the 
windows. 

“There, I have made every window fast,” he said 
to himself. “ I am a very powerful creature. No one 
can break into this room through the windows, and 
now I guess I better spin a web over the lock on the 
door and make that fast. I am lord of the attic. No 
one can enter unless I wish.” 

After a while the spider grew so proud of his great 
power of making things fast in his web that he de- 
cided to bind all the old furniture and get it in his 
power as well. 

He spun a web over an old mirror and over the 
chairs under the table, winding in and out about the 
7 


94 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

legs. In fact, there was nothing he did not have 
bound fast. 

“Now I must find me a place to live where I can 
watch what happens if any one tries to break into the 
room or any of the old furniture tries to move,” said 
the spider. 

So he looked the attic all over and at last decided 
upon an old clock standing in one comer of the 
room. 

“The very place,” said the spider. “I’ll spin me a 
web about the face of that old clock. I’ll bind the 
hands with my strong web, and there I’ll watch and 
wait to laugh at those who try to break in and take 
away my power. Of course they cannot do it and it 
will be great sport to see them try.” 

So over the face of the clock he spun his web and 
then sat down to wait. 

Every time the wind rattled the windows and door 
the spider would puff up with pride. “They cannot 
get in,” he would say, thinking some one was trying 
to enter. “ I am lord of the attic, and none can break 
down my stronghold.” 

At last one day the door was opened and the spider 
saw a maid come in with a broom and brush away 
every cobweb around the room. 

She opened the windows and destroyed all his 
strong works, but she did not see the web on the face 
of the clock. 

“I have made this stronger than the other,” said 


BOASTFUL SPIDER AND THE CLOCK 95 

the silly spider. “No one can break away this web. 
I have the clock bound fast.” 

One day the door of the attic was again opened; 
a man came in and picked up the big clock in the 
comer. 

“He will find he cannot move your hands,” said 
the spider to the clock. “I have spun a double web 
over your face.” 

But the clock held its peace. “It is afraid of me,” 
said the spider. “I had everything in that attic 
afraid, too.” 

The old clock was placed in the hall downstairs and 
pretty soon it began to tick. “You cannot frighten 
me, ’ ’ said the spider. “You cannot move. I have you 
fast bound.” 

“Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock,” went the clock, 
and the spider saw his web snap on one side. By 
and by another slender thread snapped. After a 
while the hands moved around the face of the 
clock and the spider’s web was destroyed. This 
time he did not brag of his strength. He slowly 
let himself down to the bottom of the clock and 
crawled out through a crack in the back of the 
case. 

The clock kept on ticking, and after it was rid of the 
boasting spider it said to itself : ‘ ‘ That spider is like 
some people; they are so satisfied with themselves 
they think all they do is the very best that can be 
done until some one comes along and overthrows 


96 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


them. I knew all the time that when I began to tick 
Mr. Spider would find his web was not so strong as he 
had thought, but there was no use telling him, so I 
waited until I could prove it. I have always found 
it true that ‘actions speak louder than words.’” 



THE SANDMAN’S SAND 


O NE night the moon was shining very brightly 
and the stars were twinkling like happy chil- 
dren laughing at the old Moon Man as he played hide- 
and-seek with them behind the little floating clouds. 

When the old Moon Man hid his shining face 
behind a dark cloud for a second the earth would 
be dark and the little stars would stop twinkling 
and be afraid. . 

“Oh, Father Moon Man,” they said, “please do 
not hide behind the very dark clouds! We do not 
like the dark.” 

“I have to hide sometimes,” said old Moon Man. 
“If I didn’t those naughty elves would steal all the 
Sandman’s sand and the world would be filled with 
wide-awake children.” 

“Where is the Sandman’s sand?” asked the little 


9 8 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


stars, “and where are the naughty little elves that 
steal it?” 

“Watch and I will show you,” said old Moon Man. 

Old Moon Man rose high in the sky and smiled as 
brightly as he could, making everything as bright as 
day, and the little stars stopped twinkling and looked 
hard at the earth with their bright little eyes. 

On the soft green grass behind a hill the stars saw a 
funny old man asleep. He wore over his head, almost 
covering his face, a peaked hood of green, but his long, 
sharp nose poked out so the little stars could see it, 
and over him was spread a long green cloak. 

“Why does he have such a long, funny nose?” 
asked one little star. 

“So he can follow it and find all the children that 
try to keep away from him and not get the sand in 
their eyes at bedtime,” said old Moon Man. 

“Does his funny, long nose always lead him to the 
wide-awake children?” asked the little stars. 

“Oh yes, my dears, always,” replied old Moon 
Man. “Sometimes they try to hide from him, but 
his nose finds them, and with one quick swing of his 
arm the sand is thrown right into the wide-open eyes 
and they fall asleep.” 

By the side of the sleeping man there was an empty 
bag, and as the Moon Man smiled broadly upon it the 
little stars saw the fairy Queen and all her fairies 
come over the hill and surround the Sandman and 
take his empty bag. 


THE SANDMAN’S SAND 


99 


They opened it wide, and then each little fairy 
dropped into it a grain of sand, which looked like silver 
in the Moon Man’s smile. 

“What is that the fairies are putting in the bag?” 
asked the little stars. 

“That is the sand the fairies make for the Sandman, 
my children,” replied the old Moon Man, “and that 
is why the earth children sleep so sweetly and soundly. 
Each grain of sand is given by a little fairy for a 
pleasant dream to an earth child.” 

“But where are the naughty elves that steal the 
sand, Father Moon?” asked the little stars. 

“You shall see, my dears ; wait, ’ ’ said old Moon Man. 

When the bag was full the fairy Queen jumped into 
her little white lily carriage, and the four white mice 
which drew her ran up the hill as she called to her 
fairies to follow her. 

Still the Sandman slept, for he had chased about 
after many children that night who tried to hide from 
him, and he was very tired. 

By and by the little stars saw tiny green creatures 
coming over the top of the hill. Oh, there were 
hundreds and hundreds of them, just as there had 
been so many fairies. 

Carefully they approached the sleeping Sandman 
and poked at him to see if he were sound asleep. 

They all nodded their heads as if to say, “He is 
fast asleep.” And then they opened the sand-bag 
beside him. 


IOO 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


One by one they took out the grains of silver sand 
the fairies had put in the bag and took from their 
pockets something which they put in place of them so 
the bag would not be empty. 

Then off up the hill ran the little green elves, while 
the little stars wondered what would happen next. 

Just then the old Moon Man hid his face behind a 
black cloud and the little stars could not see the 
elves, but in a minute he came from behind the cloud, 
and there on the hill they saw the little elves rolling 
over one another right to the bottom and onto the 
sleeping Sandman, who awoke with a jump. 

With his long cloak he caught them all, throwing 
it over them as they rolled at his feet. 

He took up his cloak with the elves inside and gave 
it such a shaking that the stars wondered if the elves 
were not all bumped and bruised. 

Then the Sandman opened the cloak and let the 
elves out one by one. They took from their pockets 
the grain of fairy sand and gave it to the Sandman, 
and off over the hill they scampered, glad to get away 
from the angry Sandman. 

Over his shoulder the Sandman threw his bag and 
away he ran. 

“Where is he going now, Father Moon?” asked the 
little stars. 

“To find the children that had awakened and 
won’t go to sleep again,” replied the old Moon Man. 
“And that is when the naughty elves get in their 


THE SANDMAN’S SAND 


IOI 


work if they can put their bad-dream seeds in the 
Sandman’s bag.” 

“Why does the Sandman leave them in his bag?” 
asked the little stars. “Doesn’t he know they are 
there?” ' 

“Yes, he knows it,” said the old Moon Man; “but 
the elves make their bad-dream seed so nearly like 
the fairies’ sand that you cannot tell them from it, 
and so when the old Sandman goes on his second 
round to find the children that wake up in the night 
he has to let it stay there with the good sand from the 
fairies.” 

“I should think all the earth children would be 
good and go to sleep the first time the Sandman comes 
around, and not wake up at all until morning,” said 
the little stars. 

“I expect they would if they knew all that you 
know, my children,” replied the old Moon Man. 


E 



L 


•THOCtfV 


THE VANITY OF ANNIE 
NNIE was a very vain little girl, and spent a 



great deal of time in front of her mirror, ar- 
ranging her black curls and admiring her pretty pink 
cheeks. But she did not try to be pleasant or even 
to look pleasant. 

One day as she sat before her mirror she heard 
some one laugh, and, looking up, she saw a queer 
little face laughing at her. Two little hands rested 
on the top of the frame, and as Annie looked a very 
little man jumped up and sat upon the top. 

“Who are you?” asked Annie. 

“I am an elf,” the little creature told her. 

“What do you want?” she said, in an angry 
tone. 

“I want to talk to you,” he answered, “and I 
think I will come down where you are,” he said, as he 


THE VANITY OF ANNIE 


103 


jumped to the top of her dressing-table and, turning 
a pin-cushion over, seated himself. 

“I think you are very bold,” said Annie. “I did 
not invite you in here, and you are upsetting my 
toilet articles. I wish you would go away.” 

“Not until I talk to you,” replied the elf. 

“ I do not care to talk,” said Annie. 

“You needn’t,” said the elf. “ I am going to do the 
talking. You are a very pretty girl.” 

“I know that,” said Annie, rather pleased that he 
acknowledged it so frankly. 

“That is what I want to talk about,” said the elf. 
“You are too proud of your good looks, and selfish; 
you do not help your mother and you are cross to 
your little brother and sister. The girls at school do 
not like you because you never speak pleasantly to 
them. You are a disagreeable little girl.” 

“I do not care if I am,” said Annie, “and you get 
right off my table.” And as she spoke she gave the 
elf a push, but to her surprise she could not move 
him. 

“You need not try to move me,” said the elf, 
“and if you do not behave better I’ll turn into a 
mouse.” 

Annie was afraid of a mouse, and did not touch 
him again. 

“Now I am going to take away your good looks 
until you are a more agreeable girl,” continued the 
elf. 


104 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“You cannot do that,” said Annie, jumping up from 
her seat and running across the room. 

“Can’t I?” said the elf. “Look in your mirror 
and see your face now.” 

Annie ran back to the mirror. There she saw a 
white face looking very cross. It was her hair and 
her body, but the face was changed. 

“There!” said the elf, “until you are more agree- 
able and kind to your mother and your little brother 
and sister you will have to wear that face. That is 
the way you look to other people, and you must look 
at yourself as you really are for a while.” As he said 
this he popped behind the mirror. 

Poor Annie! She pinched herself to make sure it 
was she, and she began to cry. But that made her 
look worse; so she bathed her face, and went out to 
her mother, who was trying to quiet the baby. “I’ll 
take him out in his carriage,” said Annie. 

On her way to school she met some of the girls, and 
she was so agreeable that one of them put her arm 
around Annie’s waist as they walked along. She 
studied her lesson and gave her attention to the 
teacher instead of thinking about her curls being 
properly arranged, and in a few days she had for- 
gotten all about her looks, she was so happy with the 
other girls. Her little sister and brother ran to meet 
her when she came from school, for they were glad 
to see her now. 

One morning when Annie was combing her hair she 


THE VANITY OP ANNIE 


105 


heard some one say, “Good morning!” and there was 
the elf again, but this time he was not laughing at 
her, although he looked pleasant. “I have come to 
tell you how much you have improved in your man- 
ners,” he said. “Go look in the mirror.” 

Annie did as he told her, and there smiling at her 
was her own pretty face. 

“If you will be as pleasant and agreeable as you 
have been for the last few weeks, you always will be a 
pretty girl,” the elf told her, “but remember that it 
will not matter how pretty your hair may be or how 
pink your cheeks, if you are not agreeable, and kind- 
ness is not in your heart, it will mar your good looks 
and no one will care for you.” 

Annie told him she would try to be a good girl, for 
she was happier now than ever before, and the elf 
stepped behind the mirror again, and although Annie 
looks for him sometimes when she has been cross, he 
has never appeared to her since, and she knows he 
thinks her a better girl than before he came to her. 



MRS. SPECKLED HEN’S LESSON 

O LD Madam Speckled Hen called her chickens 
about her and put on her sunbonnet. “Come 
along,” she said, going to the door and opening it to 
let her little family pass outside. 

“Where are you going, Mrs. Speckled Hen?” asked 
Toby from his door of the dog-house. 

“Where would I be going, Mr. Dog, but to find 
worms for my family?” said Mrs. Speckled Hen, 
pulling her sunbonnet over her eyes to shade them 
from the hot sun. 

“If it isn’t one thing it is another in this world,” 
she said. “You, Mr. Dog, have nothing to do but 
sleep in your nice, cool house and have all your meals 
brought to you on a dish, but I have to scratch for 
myself, and my big family, too.” 

“It seems to me that I have seen you eating food 


MRS. SPECKLED HEN’S LESSON 


107 

that is brought to you, too, Mrs. Speckled Hen,” said 
Mr. Dog. “And as for your working so hard, I 
wonder who protects you and your family, while you 
sleep, from Mr. Fox.” 

‘‘Talk away if you like, Mr. Dog,” said Mrs. 
Speckled Hen, for she could not reply to that with- 
out giving Mr. Dog credit for working, too. “But 
I cannot stop to gossip, Mr. Dog. I must be on 
my way and teach these chicks to scratch for their 
living.” 

“She is always fussing about something,” said Toby 
Dog, “and she thinks no one works as hard as she 
does — poor old thing!” 

Mrs. Speckled Hen found a nice shady spot under 
a bush and there she took her chicks. ‘‘Now you 
scratch like this and this,” she said, showing them how 
to find the worms. 

Just then she espied Mrs. White Hen and ran across 
the road to tell her a bit of gossip about Miss Henny 
Brown, who hadn’t laid an egg in a week. ‘‘But she 
cackles and cackles as though she had a nestful,” said 
Mrs. Speckled Hen. 

‘‘And there is old Madam Duck. She just waddles 
about and quacks and never does a thing but eat. 
I don’t see why master keeps her eating up good food 
that we should have. 

‘‘Oh dear! I have such a lot to do — all my family 
to teach to scratch for worms, and if I do say it, I do 
more work than any other hen in this barn-yard ex- 


108 SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

cepting you, of course, my dear Mrs. White Hen. 
In your day you have done some work, I know.” 

“What do you mean by ‘in my day’? Don’t I do 
my share now, I should like to know?” asked Mrs. 
White Hen, bristling her feathers and looking very 
cross at Mrs'. Speckled Hen. 

“ Oh, of course you do, my dear,” said Mrs. Speckled 
Hen. “But you know, Mrs. White Hen, you have 
been here a long time. Why, you had a family of 
chicks when I was a girl!” 

Mrs. White Hen glared at Mrs. Speckled Hen, and 
what would have happened no one knows if at that 
moment a terrible cackling and squawking had not 
been heard in the barn-yard, and Toby Dog came 
running and bounding toward Mrs. Speckled Hen’s 
chickens. 

Toby Dog barked as he came and made a jump 
at something that flew up high above the heads of the 
frightened chicks. 

Mrs. Speckled Hen came a-running and looking 
frightened out of her senses, and Toby Dog said to 
her: “With all you have to do, Mrs. Speckled Hen, 
you had better not waste your time gossiping. If it 
hadn’t been for me you would have had less to do for 
a while. That hawk would have had two or more of 
your chicks in another second if I had not scared it 
away.” 

Mrs. Speckled Hen could not say a word ; she was 
far too frightened, for one reason, and, for another, she 


MRS. SPECKLED HEN’S LESSON 


109 


knew she had talked too much about the work she 
had to do when she really did very little, so she 
clucked to her chicks and took them home, and after 
that no one heard any more from her about what she 
had to do. 

“ I guess I have cured her,” said Toby Dog one day 
as he saw Mrs. Speckled Hen digging away for all she 
was worth for worms, and her little ones around her 
scratching, too. 

“I just have to run things about here, but there is 
no use telling everybody about it,” said Toby Dog, 
stretching out in front of his house for a nap. 

8 



THE SINGING-SCHOOL 
“JNT POLLY DUCK decided one morning, as 



f \ she walked along toward the pond, that the 
barn-yard animals were quite behind the times and 
that a singing-school ought to be started in the barn- 


yard. 


So she called all the barn-yard dwellers together 
and told them she was going to start a singing-school. 

Everybody thought that would be a fine thing and 
they decided it should be held in the field back of the 
barn. 

When they were all assembled Mr. Dog asked, 
“Who is to lead the singing?” 

“Why, I had not thought of that,” said Aunt Polly. 
“ I guess I better lead it myself. I used to be quite a 
singer in my day.” 

“That all may be, Aunt Polly,” said Mr. Dog, 



THE SINGING-SCHOOL 


hi 


“but your day was long ago and times have changed. 

I think I’m better fitted to lead the singing than you 
>» 

are. 

“I don’t want to sing like you, Mr. Dog,” said 
Miss Henny Black. “ I have heard you sing at night, 
and it sounds very distressing, very indeed.” 

“I think I’d better settle this by leading the singing 
myself,” said the Gobbler, strutting out in front of 
them all. 

“Well, if I have to gobble, I won’t stay,” hissed 
Miss Goosey Gray. “My voice is not so loud as 
some, but if I do say so, I have a very soft, fine- 
toned voice and I do not intend to have it spoiled 
by any Gobbler.” 

Mr. Gobbler threw Miss Goosey a look of disdain 
and strutted off. 

“I have a good bass voice,” said Mr. Pig, “but I 
don’t know much about teaching. I think, however, 
I could grunt so you could all follow if I tried.” 

“Well, if any one is to teach, I think I should,” said 
Mr. Donkey, with his ears standing up straight. “I 
can make more noise than any one in the barn-yard.” 

“That you can we will all agree,” said Mr. Rooster, 
“but, my dear fellow, it isn’t the sort of music we like 
to hear.” 

“If you are looking for a leader of this singing- 
school, I will take charge,” said the Peacock. “You 
need dignity and grace, and beauty is not a bad trait 
in one who leads.” 


1 1 2 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“If you want a leader firm on his feet Peacock is 
the one,” whispered Tommy Cat. “Look at those 
feet!” 

But just then Mr. Peacock spread his beautiful tail 
and all else was forgotten. He certainly was a 
beautiful creature, and before Tommy Cat could get 
in a word about his own lovely voice and how he was 
used to leading a chorus it had been decided that the 
Peacock should lead the singing-school. 

Mr. Peacock strutted up in front of the wall, taking 
care to stand behind a stone large enough to hide his 
feet, and with his tail spread out full width he said, 
“Now I will give you a few tones and then all sing 
as I do.” 

One shrill, harsh, and awful tone did Mr. Peacock 
give, and when it was over he found himself alone, for 
not a creature was near him. 

Mr. Dog dropped his tail and ran, and Tommy Cat 
went up a tree, where he sat with staring eyes looking 
down at Mr. Peacock. 

The Donkey dropped his eyes and bounded away, 
and the hens and ducks and geese went as fast as their 
two legs would carry them, scurrying under bushes 
and behind barrels to get away from they knew not 
what. 

When they felt safe they peeped out to see what had 
really happened, and there stood Mr. Peacock, looking 
all around for his vanished pupils. 

“What is the matter with you all?” he called out. 


THE SINGING-SCHOOL 


113 

“Are my tones too high for you? I can make them 
lower. I should have known you would not be able to 
sing as well as I do at the first, but don’t get dis- 
couraged. You will be able to sing if you practise.” 

But no one went back, and after a while Mr. Peacock 
walked away. 

“Too bad, too bad,” he said, “to throw away such a 
fine chance as they all had to learn to sing. It isn’t 
every day one with my beautiful voice is willing to 
teach the common animals in the barn-yard. And 
to think they might all in time have been able to sing 
almost as well as I. They certainly have thrown 
away an opportunity.” 

When Mr. Peacock was well out of sight all the 
animals came out from their hiding-places. 

“Wasn’t that just awful?” said Miss Goosey Gray. 

“Awful is not bad enough,” said another. “I 
thought at first a hawk or some terrible animal was 
upon us all and everybody was screaming.” 

“And the worst of it is he thinks he can sing,” 
laughed Tommy Cat, “and he does not know he 
can’t. He thinks we were discouraged because of 
his fine tones and feared we never could sing like 
him.” 

“Let him think so,” said Aunt Polly Duck. “It 
won’t hurt us.” 

“Yes, let him think, but don’t let him sing,” said 
Mr. Dog. “If ever he begins to sing around here 
again I’ll chase him off the place,” 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


1 14 

“I guess my singing-school is a failure,” said Aunt 
Polly Duck to herself as she waddled away. “The 
trouble is that each one thinks just as the Peacock 
does. None of us can sing, but I can quack and I 
will,” and off she went, quacking as loudly as she 
could. 



HOW MRS. MOUSE FOOLED KITTY 

M RS. MOUSE had just moved her little family 
into the attic of the house where she had been 
living, because on the first floor Kitty had been watch- 
ing her hole in a very unpleasant manner. So Mrs. 
Mouse told her husband that she thought the air 
would be better for all of them if they moved to the 
top of the house, and also that she felt sure they all 
would live much longer. 

“But she will find us, my dear,” said Mr. Mouse. 
“Very likely she will watch so closely we will not 
have a chance to move. 

“We could manage very well, I am sure; we could 
escape when Kitty is dozing; but the children are so 
young, I am afraid we will never be able to move until 
they are larger.” 

“ If you wait for that we may not have any children 


n6 SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

to move,” replied his wife. “All I want is your 
consent to the plan, and I will take care of the moving, 
and do it all with safety, too.” 

“Very well, my dear,” replied her husband. “ I will 
agree, only do let me have a look at the place, so I 
will know where to go when I come home some day 
and find you have left this home.” 

Mrs. Mouse told her children not to dare move or 
go near the hole in the wall until she returned, and 
then she took her husband to the attic of the house 
under the roof, where there was a big basket of com. 

“Why didn’t you mention the com, my dear?” 
asked Mr. Mouse. “I am sure the place is in every 
way quite satisfactory to me. Can I help you to 
move?” 

His wife told him she did not need his help. All 
she wanted was his consent, and away she ran, but 
not home. She went to a closet where .things were 
stored and where she had only the night before been 
fooled, but she did not mention it to her husband. 

She had seen Mr. Mouse mn in and out of a closet, 
and, going in there one day, she found nothing that to 
her mind was worth eating, and she was wondering 
what in the world he went into that dry closet for, 
when suddenly she saw two bright eyes looking 
straight at her. 

Mrs. Mouse felt her heart jump and then stand 
still. She thought of her children and she wondered 
what would become of them, all in a twinkling of 


HOW MRS. MOUSE FOOLED KITTY 117 

an eye; but the eyes did not wink or blink, they kept 
staring straight at her. 

After a minute she felt sure it was not Kitty, or she 
would have pounced upon her before that. 

Mrs. Mouse took another look, now that her eyes 
had become accustomed to the place, and she saw 
with surprise that this creature resembled her, only 
that its coat might be a little thicker. 

“How do you do?” Mrs. Mouse ventured at last. 

Then when the creature did not reply she spoke 
again. “I wonder if you know my husband. He runs 
in and out of here often.” 

Still no reply and Mrs. Mouse was getting rather 
angry. She moved nearer, and to her surprise she 
found the creature had no body, only a head, and that 
was rather large. Mrs. Mouse grew bolder and went 
closer, then she stopped; she had been talking to a 
stuffed head that had fallen off some of the furs that 
were hanging in the closet. 

And this was where Mrs. Mouse ran when she left 
her husband, right to this closet, and brought the head 
with her when she came out. 

She carried it home and crept cautiously to the 
hole in the wall, and then down to the floor, where 
there was another hole that entered the kitchen under 
the table. 

She waited and found that puss was asleep near 
this hole, then Mrs. Mouse put the fur head just 
where the tip end of the nose could be seen and 


n8 SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

where puss could not reach it, and went back to 
her children. 

There was another opening to this hole in the wall 
and this was through the pantry, and on the other 
side of the pantry was a hole which would enable Mrs. 
Mouse to take her family to the attic to their new 
home if they could but cross the pantry in safety. 

This was the reason she placed the fur head where 
Kitty was sleeping, so that when she awoke she would 
not leave that hole because she would be sure she 
saw the tip of the nose of a mouse. 

“What in the world are you watching?” said the 
cook one day to Kitty. You hardly leave long enough 
to eat your dinner.” 

“Me-ow, me-ow!” said Kitty, swinging her tail and 
looking into the hole again. 

“Get away from there and let me see,” said cook. 

With a fork cook poked into the hole, and in a 
minute she drew out the fur head with the shiny eyes. 

“Well, you are a silly puss to be sure,” she said, 
throwing the head on the floor; “you have been watch- 
ing that hole for two days, and it was only a fur head 
off mistress’s neck-piece.” 

Kitty gave one sniff at the head and then ran out 
of the house. ‘ ‘ They fooled me, ’ ’ she said. ‘ ‘ I believe 
the whole family have moved out while I was watch- 
ing that old piece of fur.” 



THE MOONLIGHT SAIL 

M R. AND MRS. MOUSE lived in a field and 
their children were taught to look out for 
all the dangers that surround the life of a field-mouse. 

But now that they were growing older, Mrs. Mouse 
told her husband, she thought they should go into a 
house for the summer. 

“We ought to give the children all the advantages 
that we can, and living in a house would teach them 
many things,” she said. “They have never seen a 
trap, and they would not know a cat if they met one.” 

And so it was decided that the family should move 
the first time there was an opportunity. 

The little mice were very much excited and could 
hardly wait for the time to come. A heavy rain de- 
layed them, but one night the moon came out and 
cleared away the clouds, and Mr. Mouse said, “My 


120 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


dear, this is the time for us to change our abode.” 
Mr. and Mrs. Mouse ran along through the field 
with the little ones beside them. It was quite a 
distance to the nearest house, and they had to take 
great care not to be seen by a cat, for the children were 
quite small. 

They had not thought of the pools of water made by 
the heavy rain, and just as they came to a house they 
found a pool in front of it which looked like a pond to 
them. “If we had a boat,” said Mrs. Mouse, “we 
could go for a moonlight sail. It would be delightful, 
and then the children would have an experience which 
they would never forget.” 

“ I think I can arrange it,” said Mr. Mouse. “Wait 
here a minute.” 

In a few minutes Mr. Mouse returned with a flat 
piece of wood which he put into the water. 

“ Jump on here,” he said to the little ones. He held 
it until Mrs. Mouse was aboard, and then he jumped 
on beside her. 

“This is much pleasanter than walking around the 
pond,” he said, as they glided along; but suddenly 
they stopped. 

“What is the matter?” asked Mrs. Mouse. 

“We are becalmed,” replied her husband. “We 
will have to wait for a breeze.” 

The moon was shining brightly and Mrs. Mouse 
looked about. “Suppose a cat should see us,” she 
said, 


THE MOONLIGHT SAIL 


1 2 1 


“Oh, what is that?” asked one of the little mice, 
pointing to something walking by the side of the 
water. 

“It is a cat,” said Mrs. Mouse. “We are lost. 
Oh, my poor children! We will all be killed!” 

“Be quiet,” said her husband. “Puss will not wet 
her feet if she can help it, even to get us, and we must 
use our wits.” 

Puss saw them, but, as Mr. Mouse had said, she did 
not intend to wet her feet. 

“What are you doing out there?” ' she asked. 
“Suppose your boat should tip over?” 

“I have been told that drowning is a very pleasant 
way to die,” said Mr. Mouse. 

“But think of your dear children,” said puss. 

“I am,” replied Mr. Mouse, “and I think they are 
much safer here at present than on land.” 

Puss walked around, but the water was quite deep, 
even for her, and she did not venture near the mouse 
family, but she seated herself by the water and 
watched. 

“ I suppose the children should be in bed,” said Mr. 
Mouse, after a while, but his wife did not answer; she 
was too frightened. 

“You can help us to land, Mistress Puss,” said Mr. 
Mouse, “if you will, for no telling when a breeze will 
spring up, and we might have to stay here all night.” 

“I shall be very glad to assist you to land,” said 
puss. “What can I do?” 


122 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“If you would roll a stone or two into the water,” 
said Mr. Mouse, “it would stir it, and the motion 
would send our boat to the other side.” 

“I can get to the other side before they can get 
away,” thought puss, “and I can catch one and 
perhaps two.” So she answered, “Yes, indeed, I am 
always glad to lend a helping hand.” 

Mrs. Mouse gathered her little ones around her, 
trembling as she did so, but she knew that her husband 
was a wise fellow and she trusted him. 

“When we get to the land,” he said, “we must run 
faster than we ever have. Here she comes with the 
stones; now be ready.” 

Puss rolled one stone into the water and the boat 
moved along. Then she rolled the second, and this 
time the boat glided to the edge of the water. 

Puss flew around the pool, but Mr. and Mrs. Mouse 
ran, and so did the little mice, and when puss reached 
the other side she saw their tails disappearing under 
the steps of the house, and as there was not a hole 
large enough for her to enter, she knew that she had 
lost them. 

Mr. Mouse was very polite and he knew that it 
would be very rude not to thank puss for helping 
them, so he went where he could see her and not be 
seen and said: “Thank you so much, Mistress Puss, 
for helping us. If ever I can repay you I will, and I 
shall never forget your kindness.” 

“It was a pleasure, I assure you,” replied puss, 


THE MOONLIGHT SAIL 


123 


“and I shall certainly never forget you or your 
family.” 

As she walked away puss said to herself: “I’ll keep 
my eye open for that family. They will be sure to 
run about the house.” 



THE WHITE FUR COATS 

O NE winter morning Bennie and Bunny Rabbit 
woke up and found their nice white fur coats 
beside their beds. 

“Oh, goody !” exclaimed Bennie. “There must be 
snow in the woods, else mother would not have put 
out our white fur coats.” 

Up jumped Bunny and looked out of the window, 
and, sure enough, there was snow all over the ground. 

It did not take them long to dress and eat their 
breakfast, for they could think of nothing else but 
the fun they would have playing in the snow. 

“Now, children,” said Mrs. Rabbit, “don’t let 
me catch you throwing snowballs at any one. If you 
do, into the house you come and put on your gray 
coats again.” 


THE WHITE FUR COATS 


125 


Of course that meant that they could not go out 
of doors while the snow lasted, for no rabbit would 
think of going out while snow was on the ground with 
a gray coat on, because the hunters could see them so 
plainly. 

Bennie and Bunny Rabbit intended to obey their 
mother, and so they promised to throw snowballs only 
at the trees and rocks, and for a while all went well. 

They made a pile of snowballs and a wall of snow, 
and back and forth they threw the snowballs at each 
other, dodging behind their white walls; and then 
Bennie espied Mr. Jack Rabbit and his wife and 
Jackie, their son, all dressed up in their Sunday best 
clothes going out for a walk. 

Jackie Rabbit had on his white fur coat, but on his 
head he wore a high hat, with a feather stuck in the 
band on one side. 

Jackie felt very proud, and as he went past Bennie 
and Bunny he tossed his head proudly and strutted 
along. 

This was too much for Bennie and Bunny. They 
rose up from behind their snow walls and threw a 
hard snowball right at Jackie Rabbit’s high hat. 

“Bang, bang!” and off went the hat on the ground. 

Jackie turned around and two more snowballs 
struck him — this time right in the face. 

My! how he did scream with rage, and out came 
Mrs. Rabbit to see what it was all about. 

“Bennie and Bunny snowballed me !” howled Jackie, 

y 


126 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“He is a proud-cat rabbit, and he made faces at 
us,” said Bennie and Bunny. 

“You come right into this house and take off your 
white coats,” said Mrs. Rabbit. 

Mrs. Jack Rabbit and her husband went to Mrs. 
Rabbit’s door. “I don’t think your children were all 
to blame,” said Mrs. Jack. “Jackie did toss his head 
and he is altogether too proud, I am sure. What are 
you going to do to punish your children, Mrs. Rabbit ?” 

“They have got to take off their white fur coats 
and put on their gray ones,” replied Mrs. Rabbit. 

“I think that would be a good punishment for 
Jackie, too,” said Mrs. Jack Rabbit. “He won’t be 
so proud another year if he has to wear his old coat 
all winter. Come right home with me and take off 
your white fur coat and hat, Jackie.” 

Oh, how Jackie did cry and how Bennie and Bunny 
cried, too, but their mothers were firm and off came 
the white fur coats, and on went the old gray ones 
again. ’Most all of the winter they had to stay in the 
house and look out at the snow. Only once in a while 
after sunset could they run in the woods, and if, some 
day, you should happen to see a little rabbit in the 
woods when the snow is on the ground, with a gray 
coat on, you may be pretty sure it is Bennie or Bunny 
or Jackie Rabbit. And if it should be neither of those 
three you may be sure it is some little rabbit who is 
wearing his old coat because his mother has taken 
away his white one for punishment. 



HOW MR. FOX GOT HIS DINNER 

M R. FOX had not been able to get anything to 
eat for several days — that is, anything he par- 
ticularly liked, and what he particularly liked was 
nice fat turkeys. 

The farmer over the hill kept his poultry-house 
door locked fast, and all of Mr. Fox’s well-laid plans 
had failed to unfasten the door or get near the barn- 
yard in the daytime, for Rover, the farmer’s dog, 
kept his eyes and ears open, and as soon as Mr. Fox 
poked his nose around the barn-yard fence Rover 
dashed after him, calling the farmer with a loud 
bark. 

Mr. Fox had some very narrow escapes, and now he 
set to work thinking how he could carry out his plans 
by a clever trick. 

One morning when he was going home hungry and 


128 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


tired he came across a muzzle which some dog had 
lost lying in his path. 

Mr. Fox picked it up, and as he walked along a 
thought came to him which made him smile. “The 
very thing,” he said, putting on the muzzle and 
fastening it in place. 

Then Mr. Fox ran all the way to the farm over the 
hill, but he did not go near the barn-yard. He 
stretched himself out by a rock down the road and 
waited. Pretty soon along came Mrs. Turkey and 
her little ones, and when she saw Mr. Fox she started 
to run, but, seeing he was muzzled, she went back, for 
Mrs. Turkey was very inquisitive and she knew some- 
thing unusual must have happened to Mr. Fox. 
Mr. Fox looked very sad, so Mrs. Turkey asked him 
what was the matter. 

“Oh, I have a great sorrow, Mrs. Turkey,” said 
Mr. Fox, “and I expect you will not give me any 
sympathy when you hear all about it; but I am 
resigned to my fate and shall try to bear it.” 

“Why, what has happened to you, Mr. Fox?” 
asked Mrs. Turkey, venturing very close to him. 
“Do tell me your troubles. I am sure I will sympa- 
thize with you.” 

“Oh, Mrs. Turkey, how would you feel to have to 
wear this awful thing over your face so you could not 
eat?” asked Mr. Fox. 

“Can’t you eat anything, Mr. Fox?” asked Mrs. 
Turkey. “Not even soup?” 


HOW MR. FOX GOT HIS DINNER 


129 


“Oh yes, I can eat soup, Mrs. Turkey,” said Mr. 
Fox, “but I cannot eat anything big or solid. All I can 
do is drink. See how thin I am. Oh dear! oh dear! 
it is terrible; and that is not all of my trouble, either.” 

“What else has befallen you, Mr. Fox?” asked Mrs. 
Turkey, really quite sorry for him now. 

“I have to carry about on my back any one who 
wishes to ride,” said Mr. Fox, “as long as I wear this 
muzzle.” 

“Can’t you take it off?” asked Mrs. Turkey, taking 
a few steps away. 

“ No, indeed. I have to wear it until the cruel man 
who put it on thinks I have beeu punished enough,” 
said Mr. Fox, “and all I did was to walk around his 
barn-yard one night just for exercise. Wouldn’t you 
like to take a ride, Mrs. Turkey? I might just as 
well be carrying you as any one.” 

Mrs. Turkey looked at Mr. Fox, but he looked so 
uncomfortable and unhappy that she felt sure he was 
telling the truth ; so she told her little turkeys to stand 
very still and she hopped on Mr. Fox’s back. 

Off he trotted down the road, and as it was the little 
turkeys he was after he brought her back safe and 
sound 

“Oh, mother, we want to ride, too,” cried all the 
little turkeys. “Give us a ride, too, Mr. Fox.” 

“I am afraid you are too young,” said Mr. Fox. 
“You do not know how to balance yourselves as your 
mother does. No, I guess you better not ride.” 


130 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“Oh, I am sure they will be perfectly safe,” said 
Mrs. Turkey. “Do take them, Mr. Fox. I will tell 
them to hold on tight.” 

“Well, if you insist,” said sly Mr. Fox, trying to 
look very sad. “I promise you I will be careful.” 

So on hopped the little turkey chicks, and Mrs. 
Turkey told them to cling fast to Mr. Fox’s fur. 

Off trotted Mr. Fox, going slowly at first, but as 
soon as he was down the road far enough from Mrs. 
Turkey he started to run. 

Into the woods he went and out of sight, and poor 
Mrs. Turkey waited until sundown for him to return ; 
then she knew it was only another of Mr. Fox’s clever 
tricks to get a good dinner and that he had carried off 
the little turkey chicks to his cave in the woods. 



JERRY FOX 

J ERRY FOX was a young fellow and he should 
have been willing to work, for he was strong and 
big; but Jerry Fox was lazy and he slept most of the 
day, and night-time, as well, until one day his mother 
and father thought it was time to make their son shift 
for himself. 

“He will never amount to anything if we keep on 
feeding him,” said old Mr. Fox. “I am not sure we 
have not already spoiled him.” 

“But what will he do?” asked Mrs. Fox. “He 
never will work and I am afraid he will starve.” 

“No, he will not starve; when he gets good and 
hungry he will hunt for his food just like all other 
young, lazy fellows,” said Mr. Fox. 

So they told Jerry Fox they were tired of supporting 


132 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


him in his laziness, and that right off, now, they were 
going to stop. 

“No breakfast for you,” said his father, “unless 
you get up and hunt for it.” 

Jerry Fox opened his eyes wide; he could scarcely 
believe his ears. Had he really got to work like his 
father and mother and go out nights and hunt ? 

Jerry Fox liked to look at pictures, and somewhere 
he had seen a picture of a blind and lame man who 
sat on the ground and held out his hat for money and 
the passers-by dropped pennies. 

“I know what I will do,” said Jerry Fox, getting 
out of bed. “I’ll just play lame and blind and get 
rich, and I’ll show father and mother I do not have 
to stoop to work.” 

It did not take Jerry Fox long to tie a cloth over his 
eyes and tie up one foot and limp off, leaning on a 
cane. 

Of course he had to go into another woods, for 
every one in the woods about him knew just how lazy 
Jerry Fox was, and would laugh at him when they saw 
him rigged out in this way. 

By and by he came to a strange place, and down he 
sat and began to whine: “Please give me a penny; 
I am blind and lame. Please pity me and help a poor 
orphan.” 

One by one the wood animals came out and looked 
at Jerry sitting on the ground, but not one offered to 
give him a penny. 


JERRY FOX 


i33 


Jerry was growing very hungry, so he decided to 
ask for food instead of money, and began to whine, 
“Please pity a poor, blind, hungry fellow and give 
him some food.” 

The wood animals this time hurried off home and 
returned with all sorts of food, and soon not only his 
hat was filled, but he had a basket of food as well. 
But the food they brought did not please Jerry Fox, 
and as soon as the wood animals were gone he began 
to growl: “I don’t like this kind of stuff. Why 
didn’t they give me fat ducks and chicken and plum 
cake and custard pie? This old bread and stuff is 
only fit for the pigs.” 

Then Jerry Fox got up, and, forgetting his lameness, 
he ran over to a rock and threw all the food that had 
been given him behind it. 

“I’ll try again,” he said. “I know some one must 
give me pennies.” Jerry heard some one coming. 
“Please pity the blind and lame,” he whined, “and 
give me a few pennies to buy food with.” 

But no one came along and Jerry looked all around, 
for he had two little holes in the cloth over his eyes to 
peek through. 

Of course he did not look up over his head in the 
tree under which he was sitting. If he had he would 
have seen old Mr. Owl looking at him. 

Mr. Owl could not see very plainly in the daytime, 
but it was not so bright in the woods but that he 
could see Jerry. 


134 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


“ I don’t believe that fellow is blind, or lame, either,” 
said old Mr. Owl after he had watched Jerry Fox 
awhile. 

After a while Jerry grew so hungry that he decided 
he would eat some of the bread he threw behind the 
rock. 

Up he jumped and pulled off the cloth that covered 
his eyes, and ran over to the rock. 

‘‘There is something strange here,” said wise old 
Mr. Owl. “I’ll just fly over to my friend, Mr. Bear, 
and see what he thinks about it.” 

Mr. Bear said he gave the poor beggar some bread 
and that all the wood animals did also, and then old 
Mr. Owl told him what he had seen and heard. 

“We can soon find out,” said Mr. Owl, “if you will 
take a nice fat hen over there and let it run down the 
path where the fellow is sitting.” 

So all the wood animals were told about the trick, 
and pretty soon Jerry Fox heard some one coming and 
began to cry, “ Please pity the blind and lame and give 
me a few pennies to buy food with.” 

But instead of some of the wood animals, as Jerry 
expected would come along, he saw through the little 
peephole in the bandage a nice fat hen scratching 
among the leaves and sticks. 

Jerry dropped his hat and sat up; he pulled off the 
bandage that covered his eyes, and the next second he 
jumped to his feet and ran after the hen. 

For the next minute or two Jerry Fox thought all 


JERRY FOX 


i35 


the animals in the world were after him. Out from 
behind the bushes they came and rescued Mr. Bear’s 
fat hen. Then with stones and sticks they ran after 
Jerry Fox and drove him out of their woods and told 
him if he ever came there again they would make him 
really lame. 

Jerry did not stop running until he reached home. 
He was tired out and hungry, but he knew it was no 
use to go into his father’s house, so he crept into a 
hole in the hill not far off and went to sleep. 

When he awoke it was moonlight and Jerry knew 
he -must get to work or starve. The beggar trick did 
not prove to be worth anything, and off he trotted 
over the hill to the farms on the other side, knowing 
that he must work if he would live, and Jerry Fox 
wanted to live very much indeed. 



TRICKY RED FOX 

I T had been a long and cold winter for the woods 
folk, and while they did not really suffer, they 
were pretty lean-looking by early spring. Mr. Bear 
did not suffer, of course, because he was asleep, but 
Reddy Fox did not have as good a winter as he liked, 
and besides that he knew he was not handsome to 
behold when he was thin. 

One morning he came out of his door and stretched 
himself in the sun, looking up and down the road to 
see if he could see anything of a stray goose or chicken 
that might have wandered away from the hilltop 
farm. 

But the woods were as still as could be, with not an 
animal in sight, and Mr. Fox tried to think of some 
one of his friends that might have found a duck or fat 
hen the night before where he could go for breakfast. 


TRICKY RED FOX 


137 


He trotted over to Billy ’Possum’s house, but Billy 
had the toothache and was in bed. 

Then Reddy went to old Mr. ’Coon’s house, but he 
was so old he had to depend on his son Tom ’Coon for 
his food, and when Tom saw Reddy he knew what he 
was after, and told Reddy Fox that he had come to 
the wrong place to get his breakfast. 

“Get up early, as I do, and get it yourself,” said 
Tom ’Coon, giving the door a bang right in the face 
of Reddy Fox. 

“He is a very bad-mannered fellow,” said Reddy 
Fox, as he trotted away. 

“He is a sly, greedy fellow,” said Tom ’Coon to 
his father, “but he can’t work any of his tricks 
on me. Let him go over the hill to the farm as 
I have to.” 

“Oh, this is a hard, cold wood to live in,” said 
Reddy Fox. “I wish some one would give a dinner 
and invite me to dine with him.” 

Reddy Fox had an idea right then. He stopped and 
smiled and then he trotted off to Mr. Bear’s house 
deep in the woods. 

He listened at the door, but all was still; then he 
went to the pantry window and carefully tried to lift 
the sash. It was fastened on the inside and Reddy 
smiled very broadly. “He has a full pantry or it 
would not be so securely locked,” he said. 

Reddy Fox went to a little pool and took a long 
drink of water to brace himself for his run, and then 


138 SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 

over the hill he went to the farm, and when he came 
back he had a nice fat pig over his shoulder. 

In front of Mr. Bear’s house he stopped and listened 
at the door, yet he could hear Mr. Bear grunting and 
stretching as if he were awaking from his long winter’s 
nap. 

“Mr. Bear! Mr. Bear!’’ called Reddy Fox. 

Mr. Bear opened the door, and when he saw the fat 
pig he smiled. 

“How do you feel after your nap?” asked Reddy, 
and without waiting for a reply he said: “All the 
wood folk want to have a real sociable time this spring, 
and each one is going to give a dinner. We have 
been waiting for you to wake up. I am going to give 
one to-night, and Mr. ’Coon to-morrow night, and Mr. 
’Possum the night after, and Mr. Squirrel the night 
after that, and Jack Rabbit the night after that, 
and—” 

“Where do I come in?” asked Mr. Bear. “I want 
to give a dinner, but if I wait until the night after all 
the others have one all the good things in my pantry 
will spoil; they will not keep a day after I get up in 
the spring.” 

“Oh, well,” said Reddy Fox, “if you feel that way 
about it, why not givo one right off? I’ll put this pig 
in your cellar, and you take the left path and I’ll take 
the right one through the woods, and in a short time 
we will have all the wood folk here.” 

Mr. Bear said that would just suit him and he would 


TRICKY RED FOX 


130 

take a piece of pie in his hand to eat as he went along, 
for he was pretty hungry, not having eaten anything 
all winter. 

Off they started, but Reddy Fox went only a short 
distance, and then he hid behind a tree until Mr. 
Bear was out of sight. 

Back to Mr. Bear’s house went Reddy Fox and into 
the pantry, and it didn’t take him long to eat all the 
good things he found on the shelves — that is, all his 
stomach could hold; then he took a basket and filled 
that full of Mr. Bear’s preserves and cake and pies 
and off he went, leaving Mr. Bear’s pantry quite bare. 

“I’ll leave the pig for Mr. Bear,’’ he said. “ I don’t 
care for pigs, anyway, unless I cannot get anything 
else, and I couldn’t this morning.” 

By and by Mr. Bear returned, and with him all the 
animals that lived along the path at the left; they 
waited and waited for Reddy Fox and the animals 
along the path at the right through the woods, but 
no one came. 

“We can set the table, anyway,” said Mr. Bear at 
last ; but when he saw the empty shelves in the pantry 
he ran back to the waiting guests with a loud growl. 

“You might have known Reddy Fox was up to 
something,” said Tom ’Coon. “You will never see 
him again unless you go to his house when he does 
not expect you, and for some time he will be on the 
lookout for you.” 

“There isn’t a thing to eat in the woods. It is too 


!4o 


SANDMAN’S TWILIGHT STORIES 


early for the berries and the rest of us have eaten all 
our winter supply,” said Mr. Squirrel. 

Then Mr. Bear thought of the pig in the cellar. 
“We can have roast pig,” he said, running down the 
cellar steps. 

But the pig had rooted its way out and run off home, 
and Mr. Bear came back growling very angrily. 

“There is but one way to get even with Reddy Fox,” 
said Tom ’Coon, “and that is to cut him off our 
visiting-list. It will be good weather soon and we all 
will have plenty to eat; then we will give some fine 
dinners and not invite Reddy Fox or even speak to 
him.” 

And that was just what happened to Reddy Fox. 
All the wood folk stopped speaking to him and no one 
would let him in when he called to see them, and all 
summer he sat alone on his steps while the rest of the 
animals held dinner parties and had a good time. 

“ I guess, after all, it does not pay to be tricky with 
your friends,” said Reddy one night. “I wish I had 
not eaten all Mr. Bear’s good things this spring. I 
would rather have gone hungry than to have lost all 
my friends.” 


THE END 













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